Hiatus Kaiyote’s Nai Palm begins solo tour at the Bottom Lounge

CHICAGO – The Bottom Lounge welcomed Nai Palm of Hiatus Kaiyote on September 10 for the first stop of her solo tour. The intimate setting offered a different way to experience the Australian songwriter’s music, stripping away the layers of a full band and leaving her voice and guitar to carry the room.

Opening the night was Cazeaux Oslo, the stage name of Melbourne-based hip-hop lyricist and poet Dominic Wagner. From the beginning of his set, Cazeaux Oslo drew the crowd in with smooth beats and an unmistakable sense of warmth. He mentioned enjoying some of Chicago’s soul food earlier in the day, and perhaps that contributed to the welcoming energy he brought to the stage.

Between songs, Wagner shouted out the people back home who contributed to his tracks and shared stories that helped set the mood for whatever came next. One song served as an ode to California, evoking images of driving through the desert around Joshua Tree. As the beat moved through the room, the crowd swayed along, seemingly transported somewhere far beyond Bottom Lounge. It was a fitting opening for the intimate set that would follow.

Nai Palm took the stage and opened with Everything Is Beautiful, from Hiatus Kaiyote’s 2024 album Love Heart Cheat Code. It was just Palm and her guitar. After working through a few technical issues early in the set, she handled the interruptions with an easy sense of humor, joking, “What a diva,” after having her amplifier adjusted.

From there, Palm settled into an intimate acoustic performance that moved between Hiatus Kaiyote songs and material from her 2017 solo album Needle Paw. The stripped-down arrangements allowed her voice to become the centerpiece of every song.

During Haiku, it was hard not to look out into the audience and notice how many people were mouthing the words back to her, completely enraptured by the performance. It’s not difficult to understand why when a voice like Palm’s is reverberating through the room. Her vocals carry a distinct rasp and power that can soar one moment and feel almost angelic the next.

Palm’s appearance is just as distinctive. Her style feels like an extension of the music; part warrior, part celestial performer, with a sparkly guitar held against her like a piece of armor. When she sings, her entire body seems to move with the music. There’s a physicality to her performance that makes it feel as though she isn’t simply singing the songs, but experiencing them alongside the audience.

Between songs, Palm maintained a playful back-and-forth with the crowd that made the evening feel less like a concert and more like a gathering of friends. She shared stories from her career and gave the audience glimpses into the experiences behind some of the music.

During her cover of Electric Ladyland, she shared a story about filming a video while recording the song, only for a lamp to catch fire and the video to ultimately be shelved. Palm joked that perhaps the spirit of Jimi Hendrix had something to do with it.

One of the night’s biggest treats was hearing acoustic versions of Hiatus Kaiyote songs such as Get Sun. Songs that are typically driven by the complexity and power of a full ensemble took on an entirely different persona with just Palm’s voice and guitar. Yet somehow, nothing felt missing. The arrangements remained vibrant and fully realized, demonstrating just how much Palm is capable of bringing to a song on her own.

There was something special about witnessing these songs stripped down to their core. Without the layers of instrumentation that normally surround them, Palm’s musicianship and ability to arrange became impossible to overlook. Her voice carried the melody, rhythm, emotion, and atmosphere, while the guitar filled in the spaces around it. As the first stop of what promises to be a soulful tour, Palm’s performance at Bottom Lounge felt like a rare opportunity to experience a familiar catalog in an entirely new way.