Photo by Jason Martin

GIG REVIEW: K.Flay’s Show In Bristol Was Enough To Convince Us That She’s Going To Be Huge

If you’ve been to see Imagine Dragons on their UK arena tour, then you’ll probably have heard of K.Flay.

Heck, even if you haven’t, you might’ve heard of her anyway. After all, she’s been doing pretty well for herself: her last album was the best (and most commercially successful of her career), and she was just nominated for two – two! – Grammy awards. She’s even spent the last few weeks touring Europe as the main support act for American arena-rockers Imagine Dragons; so, it’s safe to say that she’s on a bit of a roll right now.

 

 

There’s a pretty good reason for that purple patch, though

If you ask us, though, then it’s safe to say that she deserves everything she’s getting right now. After all, we love seeing talented musicians get rewarded for their endeavours; and, after seeing K.Flay live when she took a break from her Imagine Dragons tour to play a show in Bristol, we can safely say that she’s a seriously talented woman.

For a start, she’s one hell of a performer. After trekking through the snow to get to the 400-capacity Thekla, it’s fair to say that we could’ve used a bit of warming up once we arrived at the venue; but, as soon as K.Flay hit the stage, we couldn’t stop ourselves from tapping our feet and shakin’ our collective tail feathers to the sound of her high-energy alt-rock. If you’re not sure what she sounds like, we’re not really sure how to describe it: take a pinch of Twenty One Pilots, add in a healthy dose of Imagine Dragons, and throw in some Radiohead for good measure, and you’re about halfway there. Or, you could just give this track a listen and find out for yourself:

 

 

She’s flipping amazing live, too

It’s one thing to sound great on record. After all, there are all sorts of studio tricks you can pull to make even the most mediocre of vocalists sound like Whitney bloody Houston, aren’t there? It’s for precisely that reason that we’re such big fans of good ol’ fashioned live music here at One on One HQ. Correct us if we’re wrong, dear reader, but it’s a lot harder to hide a dodgy vocal or an out-of-time guitar when the sound is being summoned from a stage that you’re stood mere meters away from.

Fortunately, K.Flay has no such problem. She’s a fantastic live vocalist, and a fantastic performer; in fact, we’d even say that she’s one of the most high-energy live acts we’ve seen for a long time. When you combine that with the fact that her songs are absolutely brilliant, you’ve got yourself a pretty sweet package. So, if you ever get the chance, make sure that you head down to a K.Flay show; we know that you won’t regret it.