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K.Flay at First Avenue (06 Mar 2025)
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You would hardly be able to tell that the Twin Cities had gotten hit with their biggest snowfall of the season the day before, as warmer temperatures have already melted a large percentage of it. And inside First Avenue, it was really heating up with headliner K.Flay performing.
Opening the evening was Vienna Vienna. Based in Los Angeles, Vienna Vienna released a debut EP late last year, entitled Wonderland. For the first number he was on stage solo with guitar (with lyrics”let me be your beauty queen”), and was then joined by a bassist and drummer for the remainder of the set. The second song was Make a Man Out of You and it gave us both singing and a bit of rap/spoken lyrics. Sex Drugs Whatever is a great rock and roll song and got the audience going strong.
The next one, Cash Grab, was a new song from Vienna Vienna and continued that party vibe, including the lyrics “let the people dance”. A slower number followed with a bit more of a vulnerable side of the artist, included some pre-recorded backing music and harmonies. The build up to an explosive closing on that song was quite effective. A bit of banter, “This is my favorite thing to do”, led us to the supposed final song, Vienna (Everything’s Fine) and brought back the rock & roll bounce with a great bass riff. A crowd that was bouncing along gave Vienna Vienna a huge round of applause, which led to the actual last song, God Save the Queens, another active and dynamic rocker. The band left the stage after a super tight twenty five minutes to extended cheers and likely a lot of new fans. In a final bit of fun, during the changeover, the drummer had the selfie stick and phone camera pointed at the crowd to record the festive reaction.
K.Flay is a singer songwriter working in multiple genres ranging from rap and alt hip-hop to indie and pop rock. She has released five albums since 2014’s Life as a Dog. Her most recent album, 2023’s Mono was written after a hearing issue left K.Flay completely deaf in her right ear, and late last year she released a number of those songs as slower, acoustic versions. That complicated background was on full display from the start, as the first song, Bar Soap, was played as a “softer” version. This is also a small band with only bass and drums supporting K.Flay’s vocals and (later on) guitar work. The opening also had an interesting video effect of K.Flay starting on screen at the back of the stage very small and then disappearing and reappearing larger each time, until it was clear that it was her on the stage and not an image. She performed the first two songs in that “cage”, before coming to the front for Raw Raw. It was fascinating to see the mix of quieter songs contrasted with loud, in your face rocking. A quip of “we’re going to sing this one loud in 2025”, preceded The President Has a Sex Tape.
This was really a run of blasting rock songs, including a great version of Shy. Giving up the guitar to essentially mosh alone on stage during Irish Goodbye had a number of crowd members singing along and completely pumped. The backing band left the stage, leaving K.Flay reminiscing about early performances focused on samples and beats, which she pulled out for Cypher. She set up the loop and then proceeded to rap to the increasing speed of the music, with barely comprehensible lyrics by the last time she went through. A “I love you Minneapolis” brought the band back on stage for the outstanding Can’t Sleep, with a sizable number of people with phones out to record the moment.
The enthusiastic stage presence was notable and K.Flay knew just the moments to pull the audience into the next gear. Dropping Four Letter Words in right near the mid point was an excellent choice, and really, I was quite impressed by the purposeful curation of the set list. She was back into the video set up at the back of the stage for a slightly toned down Are You Serious? with an somewhat jazzy interlude. This was the first of a few of the quieter versions of songs from the EP I’m Making Friends with the Silence. While different than their originals, they hit with a different kind of emotion, which K.Flay described as the acceptance of her hearing loss. Chaos Is Love had an Americana feel, which was pretty compelling. Punisher was a song in two halves, starting with the softer version, before reverting to its louder original. A cover of The Beatles’ I Am the Walrus followed, with K.Flay getting the audience to scream the “goo goo g’joob” before a rapid transition back to her songs.
The remainder of the set really flew by in the best possible way. Blood in the Cut was a high point of the latter third. The introduction of the band just before the almost nuclear High Enough signaled the end of the concert, but they went out with a bang. K.Flay left the Minneapolis crowd warmed up and ready to head back into the cooler evening.
| thaddeus ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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