Man of the moment, Gotye. Photo: Simon Schluter

Creating a piece of pop as beloved as that song must be of great personal satisfaction to Gotye. He's built an international profile as a talented, versatile, inventive musician and could pick up a Grammy for it early next year.

On the other hand, it does mean he'll have to perform that song at every public performance from now until the end of time.

So how to avoid making his whole show about that song?

The answer was to almost bury it about an hour into his hour-and-a-half concert at the Brisbane Riverstage last night, leading into it with so little fanfare that the crowd didn't recognise it for the first 10 seconds or so.

But when the tingly twang of the Baa Baa Black Sheep sample kicked in, you could feel a definite mood change.

People still sitting at the top grassy hill stood up; people queuing for hot chips and beer abandoned the line and the crowd seemed to shift forward. Couples put their arms around each other; odd, really, given that the song is about a nasty breakup.

And it was good, certainly, but not as awe-inspiring as I expected it to be. Having said that, I was right up the back of the hill, gazing down on Gotye's tiny form in the distance, with no way of seeing his face. I realised what an intimate song it really is, exemplified by its simple and focused music video.

For those packed in down the front, it was probably far more enjoyable.

Support act Bertie Blackman filled the Kimbra role, dressed in a mouse costume. She performed admirably, although perhaps without the New Zealand chanteuse's power.

The show, of course, was far more than that song. I just wanted to get it out of the way.

Gotye opened with The Only Way and What Do You Want?, establishing a pattern of moving between the front of stage and a full percussion set up at the back. He moved into Making Mirrors territory with Easy Way Out and Smoke and Mirrors, ably supported by his band, with surreal and whimsical clips on the big screen at the back of stage providing the visual drawcard.

The 32-year-old then moved into his version of "novelty" songs – Thanks for Your Time, and State of the Art.

The latter saw the surprise appearance of Barry Morgan, the comic organ salesman character who instructed the audience in his "one finger" organ-playing technique. The inclusion suited the song; but if you weren't aware of the sparkly-suited comic character, it would have been rather baffling.

At least, however, that provided some energy.

To be honest, over half of the material felt like it would be better suited to a loungeroom around 3am, after the initial enthusiasm of a house party has worn off, and everybody's waning and hitting that wall of drunken tiredness that prompts deep and meaningful conversations about capitalism and religion and politics and why doesn't Australian TV do good sketch comedy any more, and then someone clicks their iPod over to something chilled out and groovy that can just mellow away in the background while you argue over which series of Blackadder was the best.

This feeling was best summed up by my accompanying friend, who, when Gotye asked the crowd if he could "play a few quiet ones in the garden", turned to me and said "Oh, I thought he already had."

Perhaps it was that the Riverstage wasn't quite the best venue. The hill was full of people, but from my vantage point up the back, it was difficult to get fully engaged with the onstage antics, despite the excellent sound-quality.

Gotye seemed to find it hard to engage more than the front crowd in sing-a-longs. Everyone up the back sort of stood awkwardly – I personally wished that we'd asked everyone to sit down, so we could all just take a load off and still see the stage.

After eventually playing that song, things got more animated. Gotye officially concluded with the epic and beautiful Heart's a Mess, which actually garnered a better response than that song.

With bows and more thank you-s out of the way (Gotye really is the nicest bloke, thanking everybody in his band, his crew, the crowd), the stage lit up again for some instrumental jamming that had a touch of Gorillaz about it. Then they broke into the effortlessly happy I Feel Better, and that's when the crowd starting moving. To be trite, it was a real toe-tapper, and that Motown feel kept going with a segue into the rocking Learnalilgivinanlovin.

I almost wished Gotye had opened his show with these high-energy numbers, but then that would have denied the crowd the big finish.