Perfume Genius is back, and this time Mike Hadreas is doing it live. His latest track leads off The Lesson, a live music and dance performance built with choreographer Kate Wallich. The pairing makes sense. Hadreas has always moved his body into his art, and anyone who caught the physicality of 2017's No Shape or the sprawl of Set My Heart on Fire Immediately knows the man treats sound and motion as one language.
Wallich and Hadreas go back a ways, so this collaboration feels earned, not stunted onto a stage for show. The new music leads the piece, a full performance where dance and song share the room.
It's a bold moment for an artist who could have coasted. Remember "Queen" back in 2014? He was already blurring lines then, turning menace into a strut.
The Lesson pushes that instinct further. Hadreas keeps chasing the physical edge of his music. This one is a stunner waiting to happen.