Gig: Gotye and Missy Higgins @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium San Francisco

Quick, take advantage of the grandparent babysitting and go to a concert! It just so happened that a great Aussie act was in town. Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know has exploded all over the world, including the US, after grabbing the #1 spot in the Hottest 100 last year. It must be strange for an artist who is really well-known in their home country to tour other countries where the audiences only know one song. He played a great set, but it felt weird that big hits from his previous album like Hearts a Mess, didn't get much response from the crowd. But hey, I've been to plenty of concerts where I only knew one song, so I won't hold that against anyone. We missed Missy Higgins because we were drinking at Bourbon and Branch, but we've seen her plenty of times before. I did get the feeling that she was only there to fill in for Kimbra for a certain song...

The graphics for the stage were amazing. I wondered if Gotye's sample-heavy music would translate well to a live performance, but the band really reproduced the sound very well live. There was only one song where everyone put down instruments to just play samples. Check out the mass of cameras recording Somebody That I Used to Know. There was also a guy in the front row recording the whole thing on his iPad...

4.5 stars