These two solo artists are best known for their collaboration on the hit song “Somebody I used to know,” but they’ve proven that they’ve got way more to come. At Saturday night’s sold out show we saw Kimbra open up for Gotye at the Kool Haus. This was Kimbra’s first time in Toronto and she told the crowd how much she was loving it here in Canada. She also told the crowd a little known fact that her and her guitarist had a little Canadian in them. Gotye however played a show in Toronto not too long ago, and stopped by to chat with BestFan last month. Though they’re native Aussies, they were still welcomed by the crowd with open arms.

First we saw Kimbra kick start the night. She came on stage in an absolutely stunning (BestFan coloured) red dress! With a tambourine in hand, Kimbra was able to keep the crowd entertained and completely captivate everyone in her performance. Her voice is nice mixture of pop and alternative but with lots of soul. It was amazing to see her belt out some long, loud note. These really got the crowd going and during some songs her voice was absolutely breath taking. She started with a song from her “Vows” album called “Call Me”. Many of her songs have a great catchy and jazzy feel to them, which definitely got the crowd grooving along nicely. She also performed songs such as “Two Way Street,” “Old Flame,” and one of her most popular songs, “Settle Down.” In every song she brought so much emotion and you could tell in her voice, her face and even in her signature hand movements. Just before she performed one of our favourite songs, “Cameo Lover,” Kimbra announced that her new album will be out in North America on May 22nd. If you that missed her this time she also announced that she’ll be back to Toronto this June!

Not too long after Kimbra left the stage, Gotye’s band was all set up and ready to go. The crowd cheered as they came on and Gotye headed to center-stage. With out wasting anytime they kicked off with “Making Mirrors” straight into “Eyes Wide Open.” Right after, Gotye greeted the crowd and said, “You sound happy Toronto… Torono… Torano,” trying his best to sound like a real Torontonian. Since Gotye is originally a drummer, we weren’t surprised to see tons of drum solos and even a few face-offs between him and the regular drummer. He created a unique balance between his drumming and singing in his songs. We’ve seen tons of artists sing while playing the piano or guitar, but it’s not every day you get to see a drummer singing as well. And you know what? He was actually amazing at both! His drum solos got the crowd completely excited, but his voice was unreal live! Hearing him live and closing your eyes was like listening to the CD with really great headphones- plus some bonus features (but we don’t actually recommend closing your eyes of course). Gotye is known for having some great and artistic music videos, or as they call them, “film clips.” During the show, these film clips and some slight variations of them played in the background. This added some really great contrast for those familiar with the videos. During “State Of The Art,” not only could you see the intense video in the back, but also the band joking around and having fun on stage. One of the guys even threw on a sports head band, danced around and high-fived the others. The best thing artists can do is have fun on stage, and they all definitely did. He played “Easy Way Out,” and “Smoke & Mirrors” soon before one of our favourites of his “Save Me”. He also brought Kimbra back out on stage and they performed “Somebody I Used to Know”. Just before he did though he reminded everyone just how important it was to have actual memories and not just videos- but of course people still whipped out their cameras. He also gave a shout-out to Walk Off The Earth, the Burlington band that did that five people on one guitar cover of “Somebody I Used to Know” as well. “Hearts A Mess,” was the last song of the set, but of course Gotye couldn’t disappoint and he came back out for an encore. When he came back out he tried settling down the crowd and waiting for people to be quiet, but with all the excitement, that wasn’t happening. After many attempts he played his song “Bronte” anyways, but when he finished he stuck up for himself and his music by saying, “If you’re going to talk during the encore you might as well leave and let the people who actually want to listen enjoy it.” We definitely have a new found respect for him because he said that on behalf of his music, band and his fans. After that he still treated the crowd to 3 more songs and thanked everyone for coming out.

After the show on the way out, we heard nothing but good things. We’d definitely recommend seeing Gotye whenever he’s back and Kimbra in June. Check out their stuff online and you can check out our interview with Gotye down below as well.