Hiatus Kaiyote: Friday, Oct. 9

When Hiatus Kaiyote arrived in Japan recently, the Australian future-soul quartet tweeted an exhausted post-travel selfie. Frontwoman Nai Palm—dressed in an Iggy and the Stooges T-shirt, sequined shrug and acid-washed jeans, with a black bandanna tied around her right ankle and enormous gold chandelier earrings half the size of her face—poses in the center of bassist Paul Bender, percussionist Perrin Moss and keyboardist Simon Mavin.

"The way that I adorn myself is more of a physical representation of the things that I'm interested in, or the things that inspire me, or trinkets from the people that I adore," Palm writes in an email somewhere between her band's show in Yokohama and its next destination, San Diego. "The way I dress is a natural extension of the human that I am."

Palm maintains her flashy style onstage, often donning chunky chains, feathers, furs and other statement pieces, while she and the rest of Hiatus Kaiyote get down to their self-described "multidimensional, polyrhythmic gangster shit." In the course of two records—2012's Tawk Tomahawk, which featured the Grammy-nominated "Nakamarra," and this year's follow-up, Choose Your Weapon—the band has managed to blend a wide range of sonic identities into one coherent style. It's easy to pick out influences from classic R&B—Palm credits Stevie Wonder, Rod Temperton and Burt Bacharach, in particular—but, like Palm's prized accessories, the less obvious ones come from friends back in Melbourne, like the experimental vocalist Jaala, sexy beatmakers Silent Jay and Jace XL, and electronica group Kirkis.

Structurally, Choose Your Weapon meanders through 18 tracks, blurring the lines between mixtape and album. Instrumentals like the two-part "Creations" serve as ethereal interludes that connect the spaces between singles like "Borderline With My Atoms" and the hip-hop inspired "The Lung." Translating them live, the big, boisterous tracks, such as the percussive "Shaolin Monk Motherfunk," have already become fan favorites, while others, like lead single "Breathing Underwater," have turned into an inside joke among band members. "I get extra brownie points if I sing 'Matt Damon' at the start of the song," Palm says. "But most of the time, I don't have the balls."

So when Hiatus Kaiyote stops in Portland on its Live in 3-D tour—the band's first gig in town—Palm hopes for some intense audience participation, if not some "Matt Damon" support chants.

"My favorite part about playing American shows is how hyped the audiences are," she says. "Their ability to interact with you as an artist while you're performing feeds you and makes the show greater than you can expect it to be. Audience members don't realize the power that they possess."

SEE IT: Hiatus Kaiyote plays Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., with Coco Columbia, on Friday, Oct. 9. 9 pm. $20 advance, $23 day of show. 21+.

Willamette Week