When I discovered that The Blow was going to be having a show in Brooklyn on the very day of my birth (May 13th,) I actually did a fist pump and exclaimed something along the lines of, “ALL RIGHT!” The last time I had seen Khaela Maricich in action was a few years ago at the Empty Bottle in Chicago where she performed songs off of Paper Television sans the help of her sometimes collaborator Jona Bechtolt. Since that time, Maricich has parted ways with Bechtolt entirely, as well as with her home base of Portland, Oregon, and is housewarming all over your face in Brooklyn with a suitcase full of new solo stuff.
As she is often want to do, Maricich parfaits her sets with funny banter that intros the song she is about to sing. Much of the banter at this evening’s show had to do with the jaw dropping and Twitter update (you could hear the swish of phones emerging from fabric in unison) inducing revelation that Maricich had written songs for an upcoming Lindsay Lohan album. An album that she states is unlikely to ever see the light of day due to implied L-LO nuttery. Expressing her inability to let the dream die, Maricich performed the songs she penned for the album, while wearing gold lady heels. “This will give you an idea of how she would have looked singing these songs,” she told the audience. The songs were mostly about Lindsay’s “relationship” with Samantha Ronson and made no attempt at masking the jive union with lyrics like, “I like you because you like to make it up too.” Or something like that. I’m paraphrasing.
Opening for Maricich was Julianna Barwick who, with all due respect, needs to ask Santa for something other than a new looping pedal for Christmas. After about 48 hours of Barwick making whale noises, I took a mental power nap until I saw Maricich hop on stage.
“Does The Blow have something to do with coke?” My friend asked half way through Maricich’s set. A question most likely prompted by the singer’s amazing dance stylings.
“No, I think it has something to do with a volcano,” I replied.
