Gotye proves a crowd-pleaser at the Tower Theater

To have a successful tour, it's a good thing to dazzle the concert crowd with a charismatic front person - especially if said individual is the band's namesake. And about that name: whenever possible, keep it simple, familiar, easy to pronounce . . .

Yet none of the above factored into Friday's sold-out show at Upper Darby's Tower Theater by Gotye, the Belgian-born Australian world pop/rock/etc. tunesmith/vocalist/percussionist/keyboardist. The somewhat retiring if affable Wouter "Wally" De Backer goes by the name "Gotye," a phonetic rendering of the French equivalent (Gaultier, as in Jean-Paul) of his Dutch first name. To compel his receptive audience, he needed only his fine tenor voice backed by crafty sampling and his sympathetic five-piece band. (The colorful, track-specific animations shown also deserve mention.)

Gotye's songs are simply that good. His third and latest album, Making Mirrors, provided most of the set's 14 varied numbers, including "State of the Art," a wondrous dub-tech tribute to Gotye's thrift-store-bought Lowrey Cotillion organ, sung in computer-deepened tones. The gig got a rousing, Motown-stomp of a finale with closer "Learnalilgivinanlovin," from 2006's Like Drawing Blood album.

The supreme representation of Gotye's warmly brooding electro-pop, however, is the new album's lead single, "Somebody That I Used to Know." Despite its gentle reggae bounce, "Somebody" sounds less like any '80s vintage ballad sung by Sting (or Peter Gabriel) and more like - particularly in its strummed acoustic guitar figure - the 1982 hit "Senses Working Overtime" by England's brilliant XTC (frequent Police tour mates).

As on record and in the tune's video, Gotye was joined onstage by ascendant New Zealand singer (and Gotye tour opener) Kimbra, who intrigued earlier with a short set drawing from her debut album Vows. The powerfully voiced Kiwi also sang on "Somebody" when Gotye debuted on American television last month. Gotye returns to TV as the just-announced musical guest for Saturday Night Live on April 14. Kimbra returns locally June 14, opening for Foster the People at the Mann Center.