K.Flay slays at the Great American Music Hall

Kristine Flaherty, known as K.Flay, has come a long way since writing her first rap parody track over 10 years ago, performing in front of a sold out crowd in her hometown of San Francisco last Thursday, October 28. On tour promoting her latest EP release, Crush Me (2016), she was accompanied by LAYNE and Nightly at the Great American Music Hall.

Born in Chicago, Flaherty attended Stanford to pursue a double major in psychology and sociology. It was shortly after her freshman year when Flaherty penned her first track, “Blingity Blang Blang,” meant as parody of hip hop songs that she felt were simple, formulaic, and misogynistic. However, she found enjoyment out of creating music, and soon found herself performing under her stage name of K.Flay. After graduation she continued to self-release music, which led her to tourwith the likes of Snoop Dogg and Passion Pit.

Amid screams and cheering from the crowd, K.Flay opened up her set with “Hail Mary,” a rap track she created in collaboration with Danny Brown back in 2013. After expressing her pleasure at being able to perform at one of her favorite venues, she announced to the crowd that she heard from some close friends that someone close to them had passed recently, and dedicated the next track, “Dreamers,” to Jack and “anyone else dealing with anything.”

After performing some of her slower, older songs, such as “Wishing It Was You” and “Cops”, she announced it was “time to get loose” before playing “It’s Strange,” her wildly popular collaborative track with Louis the Child.

While energy throughout the venue was already high with the crowd singing along lyrics from start to finish, it reached an all-time high with “FML,” a single that was released earlier this year.

With a shout out to LIVE 105, K.Flay finished the night off with “Blood in the Cut,” a track off of Crush Me that has been making its rounds on the radio waves recently. Her set seemed to have gone by so fast, and soon the whole crowd was stomping, for an encore performance. K.Flay, obliging the crowd, returned with what she said was a request, “Turn It Around” before wrapping up the entire night with a throwback to her first EP, Kate Flay (2010), with “No Duh.”

All throughout the night, the crowd was able to see how her music has developed into something that pushes the boundaries of typical rap music, beginning with her early rap tracks to her more recent work full of catchy pop-esque hooks and electronic beats, all the while with introspective lyrics dealing with topics such as loneliness and disappointment. This, combined with her own performing prowess and her switching from spitting bars to playing riffs on the bass guitar, made for a fantastic night at the Great American Music Hall.

If you still haven’t seen K.Flay live, catch her this December in Oakland as she headlines Not So Silent Night.