Blaqk Audio

Blaqk Audio perform on September 14, 2012 at The Roxy Theater in Los Angeles, CA

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The burgundy velvet curtain from The Roxy Theater rose slowly at 10:05pm on Friday, September 14, 2012 for Blaqk Audio’s sold out and last show of their West Coast Tour. The stage was all black, other than the DJ booth, holding two apple laptops, with the Blaqk Audio logo, shining in front of it; Jade Puget, standing behind it. A silhouette of singer, Davey Havok stood in front of it, his hands crossed out in front of him, his head tilted down. The crowd roared, louder and louder as the lights shone on Havok who was wearing a burgundy, purple suit with sparkly white shoes. Puget began to play the keyboards and for their slower song, Cold War, the first song on the groups newly released album, Bright Black Heaven.

Throughout their set, the group alternated between Bright Black Heaven and their 2007 album, Cex Cells. Every song brought a different kind of energy and had everyone dancing and singing. Though Bright Black Heaven was released on September 11, 2012, everyone in the crowd sang the lyrics to all the new songs. Havok was never seen in one place for more than 5 seconds; he was constantly running to different sides of the stage, dancing and reaching out into the crowd- all while singing. By the middle of their set, it seemed like Havok was dripping with sweat; his shirt, almost completely drenched. Puget was a little harder to see, being covered by his DJ booth, but occasionally you could see him dancing and waving his hands in the air. About 14 songs later, the group left the stage after performing their 2007 single, Stiff Kittens. The crowd was not yet finished and started chanting; those close to the stage, started banging on it. The chanting grew louder as the crowds patience deteriorated. After a few minutes, Puget and Havok were back on stage.

“Thank you so much everyone! Tonight has been so wonderful, we really, really, really appreciate you being a part of it. Thank you, it’s been such a great time. You are fabulous! This song goes out to a friend of mine that I went on one of the best dates of my life with him, his name’s Dan [Smith], he’s married now and he tattoos. We went out to see a band called Erasure“.

The group goes into a cover of Erasure’s, A Little Respect. A quarter into the song, 4 women start pushing each other and Havok, in between singing, asks “What’s happening? What’s going on?” He continues the song, until about half way through, the women start punching each other. “Oh my god, there is a fight!” Havok stops singing and tour manager, Smith Puget, along with 2 other security guards jump into the crowd to break it up. Puget stops the song, gets out from behind his booth and joins Havok in front of the stage. “I don’t understand…”. Havok says as he turns to Puget, who takes the microphone. “Out of all the songs to start a fight to, the happiest song ever written!” The crowd goes crazy and Puget goes back to his booth, high fiving the fans on his way there. “Yeah, it’s a song about everyone loving each other. Boys loving boys, girls loving girls, girls loving boys, all that shit. I’m just not impressed, to be honest”. The crowd boos. Havok sees one of the women, who was bleeding all over her face and asks for an explanation of what happened and if they are OK. “I punched you!? I was up here singing Erasure, baby!” He replies after the women says Havok hit her. The group continued the song from the exact spot that it stopped, confusing Havok, who laughed while continuing the song. “I’m still so confused!” Havok told the crowd. “Alright, we are Blaqk Audio, please don’t fight, just dance! Semiotic Love!” Everyone sang along with Havok and Puget, dancing and clapping their hands. They ended the song, thanking the crowd, Puget again high fived the crowd as Havok, bowed.

After seeing their performance, there was no doubt for why the show was sold out almost instantly and why Bright Black Heaven has been number 1 on the ITunes, Electronic charts for a week and counting. The groups energetic performance and crowd interaction really made the show something that every music fan should go out to see.