NAI PALM – Photos By Cate Gowers
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After releasing their debut EP Tawk Tomahawk early last year, Hiatus Kaiyote has reaped a massive amount of attention for their bold and unique take on the future soul genre. The creative mind behind these songs is Nai Palm . Together with her core band members Paul Bender , Perrin Moss and Simon Mavin , she’s just returned from a world tour, and tonight’s show was one of a few solo and full band shows celebrating their return to home soil.
Local hip-hop artist Remi began the night, hitting the stage with the energy of a kid after guzzling Red Bull. Having a live drummer, a backing DJ on pads and other percussive elements like claps, he sent the front crowd into a frenzy of dance.
About halfway through their set, Remi pulled a dancing Nai up on stage to add some much needed female vocals to their rendition of Marlena Shaw ’s ‘ ’. Their last song featured an ornate layering of heavy beats and a fat bass that boomed through the Northcote Social Club . It was, by far, the best song of the set.
Nai Palm, although small in stature, has a huge eye and ear catching presence on stage, with her daring fashion sense and buoyantly soulful and lyrically intriguing songs. She got straight into playing, and began with two tracks off the EP, ‘Lace Scull ’ and ‘ Mobius Streak ’.
When playing, she jerks at guitar strings, pulses her body to the beat and snaps her head and mouth around the circumference of the mic, as if she’s playing the song with more than her voice and a shiny yellow guitar.
The night really felt like a massive homecoming party, with Nai modestly injecting little tales of the surreal reactions she’s received for her music in the past year. She told us that last week not only did Prince tweet about her song ‘ Nakamarra ,’ but Stevie Wonder listened to her stuff and liked what he’d heard too! She played tribute to these successes by playing a rendition of ‘ I Can’t Help It ,’ a song Stevie wrote for Michael Jackson (another of her musical idols), then ‘ Breathing Underwater ’, which Nai wrote in tribute to Wonder before he recognised her.
She also mixed some new material into the set, including ‘ Atari ’, a tribute to the video game of the same name, and ‘ Borderline With My Atoms .’ Arguably the biggest hit off the EP, ‘ Nakamarra ‘ was included too.
Every so often people in the audience were compelled to raise their hands, or momentarily and unconsciously droop in ore and adoration of Nai’s surreal feats on the stage. Despite this, Nai seemed totally at peace in front of fans and friends in her home town, saying it was, “…good to be back home with an audience that has supported my creativity.” It’s a creativity that is truly magnetic and intoxicating, making it impossible not to like Nai Palm.
Catch Nai yourself when Hiatus Kaiyote play two late night shows at the Melbourne Festival Hub on 11 and 12 October. Get your mits on tickets here .
WORDS BY Leah Phillips
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