K.Flay Wraps Her 'I'm Making Friends with the Silence' Tour in LA

Ever since K.Flay hit the scene with her 2010 self-titled EP and rap track, “No Duh”, I was a cemented-in fan. Having a queer, gender-nonconforming fresh female voice in the music and especially rap world of that era was something rare and precious. K.Flay went on to lead an expansive career in genre-defying music centering around indie sounds with incredibly self-aware and socially vibrant lyrics. One of the many reasons she continues to inspire me along with so many others.

After releasing her 2023 album, MONO, which reflects on her recent and sudden loss of hearing in her right ear, K.Flay reworked some of her favorite tracks into softer versions which she released into an EP last November, I’m Making Friends With the Silence. This Spring, K.Flay hit the road from February to late March sharing with fans across North America her polymorphous sounds of MONO and taking us on a journey through some of her most beloved hits.

On Saturday, March 29th, the tour lands in Los Angeles, CA to a packed Belasco Theatre for its final stop. Fans were amped early on in the night from the musical graces of Vienna Vienna who elevated us with their glimmer rock and explosive awareness. When the time came for K.Flay’s set, audiences were already primed and ready for her gentle opening of “Bar Soap (Softer Version)” which eased us into the night. K.Flay’s stage design was clever and self-referential, starting with a neon-electric box that housed the singer for her first two tracks, and then morphed into a screen playing different versions of herself in different patterns and loops matching each song’s own personality throughout the set.

After the soft opening, K.Flay catapulted us back to her 2017 album, Every Where Is Some Where, with one of her most loved songs, “Giver.” The beat of this song definitely raised the energy and paved the way for the following upbeat hits including one of her 2023 singles, “Raw Raw,” and a very unfortunately relevant but hilarious track, “The President Has a Sex Tape.” Through just these first few songs, K.Flay already exhibited her dynamic energy ranges and her uniquely vulnerable and powerful rampages. Sometimes curling herself small into a frozen statue, and other times flailing around the stage in an unpredictable kinetic pattern. All of it full of authenticity, rawness, realness.

Her energy and the energy of the audience was certainly unmatched during one of her most revved up songs from the MONO album, “Irish Goodbye” which on the recording features Vic Fuentes from Pierce the Veil.

K.Flay takes us back in time to her early musical start with a rap solo, “Cypher,” which was accompanied only by her sampler-programmed beat that gradually sped up through the song. The perfect roadway to another favorite track from 2017, “Can’t Sleep,” that everyone in the audience sang along to fervently. The set covered a few tracks from her 2022 album, Inside Voices/Outside Voices such as, “Weirdo” and “Four Letter Words,” and then dived into a fun Beatles cover, “I Am the Walrus.”

Before transitioning into the softer tracks from the new EP, K.Flay pauses to connect with the audience and reflect on loss, grief and the weirdness of life. She shares about her hearing loss and how its impacted her as a music artist before sharing these gentle version songs with us. She takes us through, “Are You Serious? (Softer version),” “Chaos Is Love (Softer version),” and “Punisher (Softer version)” which she then ingeniously transitions into “Punisher” from the louder MONO version that takes us a few notches back up and shifts from bright light lighting back into a deep red bathing the stage and a dancing K.Flay in the glow.

The set carries us back through more originals and early day Flay with “Zen/FML,” “Bad Vibes,” “Blood In the Cut” and the highly revered and anticipated 2017 hit single, “High Enough.” In all her eclectic glory, K. Flay drives us through the mighty and disorienting anthem, “Carsick” as part of her closing tracks and then leaves us with “Perfectly Alone.”

A concert that flew by way too fast despite having taken us on an odyssey of moods and introspections full of peaks and valleys, rage and catharsis, pain and playfulness, K.Flay thanks her musicians and says her goodnights. After a month on the road hitting 25 cities in the US and Canada, K.Flay concludes her I’m Making Friends with the Silence Tour. Fans will be waiting for more updates and releases from this resilient multihyphenate artist, but be sure to check out both MONO and I’m Making Friends with the Silence in the meantime.