K. Flay • Vienna Vienna • March 3, 2025 • The Complex
Reviewed and Photographed by Morgan Newbold
Last Monday, K.Flay came to shake up the town and played an electric show at the Complex in Salt Lake City on the MONO tour! They played to a packed room in The Grand and shook the walls with heavy bass and energetic music. I’m stoked that I finally got to see her and her band! She is such a versatile musician, and I was blown away by her talent.
Vienna Vienna
It was a rainy evening when I walked up to the venue, the room was almost full as the opener, Vienna Vienna, was starting their set. They had great rocker energy, and the crowd loved them! A big portion of them seemed to know their songs! I hadn’t heard of their band, but I thoroughly enjoyed their set, and they seemed like a really sweet group of people. They were all wearing T-shirts that said SL, UT!
K.Flay
K.Flay, or Kristine Meredith Flaherty, is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and musician from Illinois. She first released an EP in 2010. Kristine was heavily musically influenced in college and started making music in 2003! Her first album under K.Flay was released in 2014, titled Life as a Dog, and she now has 5 albums out, with the latest, Mono, out in 2023!
Her style is genre defying but has heavy hip hop, indie, and pop rock influences, and she has cited artists like Missy Elliot, Tame Impala and M.I.A! She’s highly regarded by her musical influences and peers, she has toured with Imagine Dragons, was nominated for a Grammy for her hit single ‘Blood in the Cut’, and her music has charted on Billboard a couple times! In 2022, she suffered a viral infection that led to hearing loss and then complete deafness in her right ear. But her commitment and love for the music and her career prevailed above that struggle, and she’s a better musician than ever.
I had no idea what to expect from the visuals of this show. I didn’t know what K.Flay even looked like, but I’ve known and adored some of her biggest hits for years. The lights dimmed, and as the crowd erupted into cheers, the band members walked onto stage in the dim haze. Music swelled. Then, at the back of the stage, a screen lit up. It was an illuminated cube that showed an almost holographic projection of K.flay, singing the intro ‘Bar Soap’. The projection slowly revealed her standing there, and you couldn’t tell what had been real all along.
She sang the first couple of songs in her box, bending and dancing around with pure, raw intensity and agility. When she finally stepped out of the box to the front of the stage, her energy and presence were already imprinted on the audience. It felt like her physical form had teleported on stage, and she was now real. It was very cool. She opened with Giver and Raw Raw, much to the fans’ delight, and then threw it back to some fan favourites and classics!
Towards the middle of her set, she did a solo rap that left everyone in the room in awe and disbelief, with every verse getting faster and faster. She has this insane rapping talent, I had no idea. I could no longer understand what she was saying, but it was clear how she was still enunciating the lyrics at unbelievable speeds. I had put my camera down for this bit just to take it in. I was wildly impressed and blown away.
Then, halfway through the set, she talked about her hearing loss and that she liked to play softer versions of her high-energy songs, and played a couple like Are you Serious? And Chaos is Love.
Her ability to rapidly switch between these energetic songs, dancing and jumping around, intense vocals, to incredible rapping capabilities, and then chill out for some melodic and musically stunning pieces, while playing the guitar, really is a testament to her insane talent. A lot of artists have expertise in just a few musical elements, but K.flay is limitless, it seems.
The lighting during this show was honestly phenomenal, which was surprising coming from the smaller room. Shoutout to their Lighting Director. I loved it when the lights silhouetted each band member. It really highlighted and drew attention to them during the set and made for some unreal shots from the pit. I made my way up to the balcony to enjoy and shoot the rest of the show.
Their production was everything I hoped it would be. The box projection was very cool, and I loved how they utilized it not only for visual effects but storytelling. K.flay is a very vulnerable and raw artist, and that showed in her performance. She’s essentially a rock star. Extremely talented and kind and has excellent stage presence! The show ended with hits like Blood in the Cut and High Enough, and they closed out with Perfectly Alone! I’m very happy I checked this one off my list and would highly recommend catching one of their shows in the future!