Messed!Up
Tossed between anger-fuelled rap, explosive rock and introspective piano pop, K.Flay’s Manchester show was a rollercoaster of heart-pounding highs and tear-jerking lows. A rare caring millennial voice for the young masses of downtrodden ‘weirdos’ (her word), K.Flay brings some well-needed self-awareness to all of the genres she circumnavigates without sacrificing that badass rock show attitude.
Joining K.Flay, opening band Weathers understood their objective and executed it well. It is rare that I see an entire room jumping before the main act has appeared. Though, it was definitely helped along by two iconic – and very well-emulated – covers of My Chemical Romance’s Famous Last Words and Twenty One Pilots’ Heathens.
As the name ‘K.Flay’ flickered and glitched against the back wall, brooding bass filled the space with cries and cheers. K.Flay and her band appeared and blasted three massive tracks – Irish Goodbye, Punisher and TikTok-famous High Enough. A single white spotlight underlining barely contained frustration flashed into the reds and blues of systemic criticism, before dissolving down into deep red for the breakdown of riff-based rock.
From arpeggiators to fuzz guitar breakdowns, K.Flay’s music adapts and flows around every line. In one song a bass guitar appeared, and the trap beat morphed into funk. In the next, the drummer smashed and crashed like Dave Grohl as K.Flay windmilled her arms around – this particular move interested me; did it represent anger or numbness? I couldn’t draw my eyes away from the performance, and the space between songs left me craning to listen to her words.
“How many people in here consider themselves to be weird or strange?” As the room erupted into cheers and hands were raised, K.Flay laughed triumphantly. “The Mancunian spirit is alive and well. Protect that weirdness, it’s your superpower.”
K.Flay’s fans enjoyed all of her key tracks, from Raw Raw to TGIF – minus Tom Morello, but with the guitar solo very present. I especially enjoyed the band’s rendition of Bulls On Parade (Rage Against the Machine cover), which was injected into the breakdown of Blood In the Cut and hit me completely out of nowhere – whammy solo included. Seeing such an iconic song performed so faithfully and so well-planned was a joy.
I felt lucky to spend the evening in such a lively but safe environment. At one point, a drunk lad tapped me on the shoulder and my sober mind reeled with the potential of the many inappropriate questions he could have been about to ask me. Instead, he leaned over and asked me if I played Guild Wars 2 and whether I could help him out by joining his group. I unfortunately declined, but it gave me a good laugh.
K.Flay has supported and worked with some huge names in her career – Imagine Dragons, Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park) and enjoyed a play on the Peaky Blinders soundtrack. She has an immense battery of energy with which she charges every show, and I can easily draw parallels to her style of performance with big, alternative solo artists such as Halsey, but I loved seeing her playing a smaller venue. I think it offered something that could be lost in a larger room – a connection to the audience; a level of communication with the room that extended beyond the front row. I know people often say they’ve felt like ‘part of something’ when they’ve been at a show with one of their favourite artists, and I truly understood what that meant, that rainy evening at Canvas.
Don’t sleep on K.Flay because you might regret it.
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Photos by Courtney Turner
