Gigi Perez: Live in Las Vegas
Show Review ★ Alyssa Bushman ★ @lissyb_21 ★ 3 Minutes
Explaining the feeling of grief in totality has to be a daunting task. It can help process complex feelings, but finding a way to pour your heart out into a song after something catastrophic happens to you is an even greater task. Gigi Perez has not only managed to do that, but has done it with so much gentle grace. She has managed to capture the consuming nature of depression and grief in an authentic way. Her voice is like a desperate cry that rings out and pulls the attention of the entire room. Gigi Perez has all of the vocal might to silence entire rooms in seconds.
Gigi Perez via (left) unknown and (right) InstagramI had the pleasure of getting to see Gigi Perez this past Thursday here in Las Vegas, Nevada. Upon seeing the opener, Camille Blackman, I became an instant fan. Her vocals are real and raw. She compliments Gigi’s style of music really well. My favorite one of her songs was the last one on her thirty minute set, “be in your band”.
Following the incredible performance by Camille Blackman, Gigi came out to her song “Please Be Rude”. This song transitioned perfectly into Sleeping, a song about the duality of outward success and private hardships. “At the Beach, in Every Life” is the title song on the album. During the lyrics ‘you’re everything to me’ that echo through the song she would point to the crowd with her guitar.
Enter the slow singer-songwriter song portion of the setlist. “Fable” had voicemails that played live and made her tear up. As an audience member you can see the entanglement of faith and grief, this left the room dead silent. “Normalcy” shows off Gigi’s operatic level vocal talent with these hauntingly beautiful vocal runs that are almost siren-like.
There were multiple fun fan interactions. She first noticed some bunnies that a fan at the barricade was holding. Then a cascading line of gifts shot into the air for her to grab. These include, but are not limited to, a painted jacket, painted boots, and a herd of posters detailing her contribution to the crowds collective sanity. “Crown”, I mean what a gut punch, with the lyrics ‘they put a crown on her head/It’s only cause she’s dead’. She also in this song has another high note that she absolutely obliterates.
“Sometimes (Backwood)” was an earlier song that she had written that made her give a cute intro speech about not enjoying smoking but doing it to impress someone she likes which is highly relatable. The next song “Glue” from EP How to Catch a Falling Knife, is all about clinging to a relationship that no longer serves you for the sake of normalcy amidst chaos.
“Collide” is a collaboration with Hayley Kiyoko for her project Girls Like Girls. Gigi discussed how much Kiyoko was a huge inspiration for her. “Sugar Water” is when she brought out her younger sister Bella. She is the sweetest thing ever and it was such a fun sister cameo where they sang about their shared childhood memories. Gigi did a cover of “Summertime Sadness” by Lana del Rey and it really amped up the crowd.
Her band had the best energy throughout the whole show. Jay Jay on drums, Aubrey Harris on bass and background vocals, Sonya Rae Taylor doing guitar and background vocals, and finally, Summer Swee-Singh on Keys. She closed the night out by coming out in front of the barricade in the crowd during “Chemistry”. Then, that song transitioned into the most perfect closer, “Sailor Song”. Putting this song at the end meant everyone had to watch until the very end to hear the most popular song. I personally love when artists structure their show this way.
