The Blow

I was first made aware of The Blow by a Nicolas Jaar rework of a wonderful song called ‘Hey Boy’, which since listening to made me a fan of both The Blow and Nicolas Jaar. The Blow is made up of Khaela Maricich and Melissa Dyne, although you only see Khaela, Melissa must have been in a back room full of lots of buttons making magic happen, but they seem epitomise the intimate gig for me. From funny little anecdotes and stories in between songs, subtle and peculiar dance moves, to even the song structure of a number of tracks, which seems to lend a hand to the intimate, with pauses in the music to greater pronounce an important lyric.
I was excited to see the blow live because I wanted to know how the sometimes tongue in cheek and sometimes misdirected sentimentalism would be recreated live and it was brilliant. Khaela operates at an interesting level between unembarrassable and pride and I found it touching and comforting to see it in front of me.
My utmost favourite song ‘Come on Petunia,’ which shares a few lyrics with The Police song ‘Every Little Thing,’ was probably my highlight of the evening, not only in terms of the energy of the crowd but Khaela seemed so well practiced she appeared to bring more energy to it herself.

Khaela Maricich, singer and songwriter for the group The Blow, looks out at the audience, then begins to tell an entertaining, personal story, the story behind her song “Hey Boy”. The audience laugh appreciatively, enjoying the humor, then settle down as a drum beat sounds over the speakers and Maricich and singer Melissa Dyne, performing from an offstage position, begin to sing. After the first chorus, many of the audience members begin to clap along, and soon the whole crowd is moving to the beat. The monologue which came before “Hey Boy” is typical of The Blow concerts. Maricich has a background in conceptual art and sound, and she incorporates her history into every show, transforming her music into a sort of live art. This leads to concerts where the crowd are given not only music, but also entertainment: a concert by The Blow is part comedy show. The group of two formed in 2001 in Washington state. The Blow's songs follow a generally romantic theme, as is made clear by their song titles such as “True Affection” and “The Love That I Crave”. The Blow are an entertaining and very unique group well worth seeing, especially if you like a side of comedy with your music.

This is for the 2018 fall tour only! I'd seen them twice before and they were amazing, but this concert was a disappointment. As Khaela admitted partway through the show, it's really more of an art-sound piece, the only reason she said they did it in a music venue is because the silence is more meaningful in that space. I saw them in Portland, where they had played many astoundingly good concerts before. In short, they played zero of their old music, and their new music is nothing compared to their old. I thought they were going to play a bunch of their old songs at the end, but Khaela came out after the audience had been screaming and applauding for an encore and said "We don't have any more songs." Someone in the audience said "Yes, you do!" Enough said, really: if you're not going to give your audience even a taste of what they're hoping for, please advertise this tour correctly and let everyone know before they show up at a music venue expecting music and not a noise/comedy show.

The single song i caught of this (presumably) incredible set was executed so phenomenally, and with such exuberance I felt like I'd attended the whole show even though I was unfortunately only able to attend for the very LAST tasty jam. They performed Get Up, introducing it as "the best song they ever wrote," I wanna say(?)...and I will say... the performance that ensued following that intro was for sure THE highlight of my whole life, or my whole concertgoing life at the VERY LEAST. I was blown away (lol, blown) also by the kindness and approachable demeanor expressed to me after the show as merch was being bought and sold, pictures taken, hugs exchanged. All in all, I'd say~ I doubt The Vera Project had seen anything like that night ever before, and I wish I hadn't missed so much. 10/10 on my list to see these two again, and catch the full experience. Much love, mad respect, awesome talent, great environment, good energy. Brilliant performance!

Weak sauce. They said they were in a room by themselves for a long time, this is all they came up with? They could have made the crowd extremely happy at the end of the show by playing even a few of the old songs, but she came out at the end and claimed "We don't have any more songs." An audience member retorted, "Yes, you do!" That summarized it for me.