K-Flay @ Bottom of the Hill 4/15/2019

Last Monday, the talented K-Flay played an intimate show at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill. 

K-Flay @ Bottom of the Hill 4/15/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

K-Flay @ Bottom of the Hill 4/15/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

 Last year K-Flay made the rounds on the festival circuit and has toured with Imagine Dragons, playing sold-out shows at way bigger venues .So of course when tickets for the first show of her short run through North America went on sale at the punky, 246 person capacity Bottom of the Hill, they were gone in minutes. 

And even though the performance was intimate it was by no means quiet. 

The fortunate ones who managed to snag a ticket were treated to an intensely fierce  performance as K-Flay engaged with fans while  moving swiftly through electronic grooves and rock riffs. Her rock meets rap sound paired with heavy synths and electro-pop beats makes pining her to a certain genre difficult. Seeing her bring her cool girl grit and those cool tunes to the stage, especially now as her popularity is skyrocketing, was pretty incredible to witness in such close proximity. 

K-Flay @ Bottom of the Hill 4/15/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

K-Flay @ Bottom of the Hill 4/15/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

Sultry and raucous, she belted out familiar songs - my personal fave being "Giver", "FML" and last year's hit that seemed to win over everyone (at least in the Bay Area) "Blood in the Cut". She played four new songs, too. It's a special feeling being in attendance for that first hand, debut experience of just not hearing new songs but seeing them performed live, too.






The talented starlet even did an unforgettable mash-up of  metal rock legends', Metallica, "Enter Sandman" mixed with Oakland's all star rapper E-40's hyphie hit "Tell Me When to Go". The real treat was the second to last song of the night, her latest hit single "Bad Vibes"  which got the room, already sticky and sweaty, pulsating to its bright/rhythmic beats. If you think the swell of synth, deep percussion and catchy chorus make this a hot track, seeing the song live is an even better experience. 

K-Flay @ Bottom of the Hill 4/15/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

K-Flay's new album drops later this year and this short North American tour of hers definitely left SF wanting more. The third installment to her catalog is undeniably an anticipated one for 2019 and so is the tour that will likely follow. 

K-Flay @ Bottom of the Hill 4/15/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

K-Flay @ Bottom of the Hill 4/15/2019
photo by Marc Fong




                                                                                     review by Marc Fong
                                                                                   edited by Nikki DeMartini

set-list 4/15/2019 

1. Giver 

2. Make Me Fade 

3. FML 

4. This Baby (NEW!)

5. Good News (NEW!) 

6. High Enough 

7. DNA

8. Tell Me When to Go/Enter Sandman (E-40 + Metallica)

9. Bad Vibes (NEW!) 

10. Blood in the Cut

Lemony Snicket Cupcake from Sift

I can't believe it has taken me this long to make it Sift Desert Bar in the Fillmore district of San Francisco but I finally did it. Sift has been around since 2008, coming more into focus in the public's eye after winning Cupcake Wars in 2011. The Northern California establishment has five different  locations: Napa, Santa Rosa, Cotati, Petaluma and San Francisco. 

Lemony Snicket Cupcake from Sift SF
photo by Nikki DeMartini

It's a dessert bar, which to any lover of sweets (like your truly) is incising. The candy striped likeness of the rose trimmed white awning outside of the small SF nook is perched just around the corner of California and Fillmore streets. Inside, more rose and bubble-gum hues spell out yum and sweet on their packaging lining the walls, doubling as decor. Even the white paper napkins have a sweet slogan of "Hey Sugar" in a matching rose colored font. 

I was tickled at how cute and simple the Sift store front is: it's cozy because of it's size yet with it's one display case, window counter top seating space and crafty decor it feels open. You can't escape the cutesy aesthetic of Sift SF. The employee behind the counter/bakery display case greeted me as I walked in and then let me do my own thing without trying to push any product, no questions asked. It was nice. 

Sift SF
photo by Nikki DeMartini

Cupcakes and French Macarons fill the case with a rainbow of colors and flavors. Some of the macarons were dusted with an eatable iridescent glitter which of course  piqued my curiosity. Perfect spirals of traditional tube pressed ridged frosting top all of the cupcakes. With its bright, canary yellow frosting, sitting front and center in the display case, the Lemony Snicket was my cupcake of choice. It simply looks like a perfect treat for a Spring day.  Plus, I love a good play on words so how could this not be the cupcake for me?

Upon ordering, I was asked if I wanted it for there or to go. Even though I could have easily eaten it there lickity split,  I wanted to see how cute their to go packaging was for a single cupcake. It was placed in a colorfully stripped Chinese food box, adorable of course. 

Lemony Snicket Cupcake from Sift SF
photo by Nikki DeMartini

The vanilla cake of the Lemony Snicket cupcake is one of the most decadent vanilla cakes I have ever tasted. It's rich and moist but not weighed down with butter. The lightness of the creamy lemon curd filling balances things out with it's bright, sweet-tart flavor, not an overly citrus tone. If I was told that the frosting was anything other than buttercream, I would have believed it. Besides being thick, this fluffy and sweet buttercream frosting doesn't have the characteristics of a classic buttercream frosting. There's a hint of lemon folded into the sweet buttercream, just the right amount to make it refreshing. As if the yellow frosting wasn't enough of an icing on the cake, it was topped of by a gelatin lemon wedge and tiny pearl sprinkles.  

Lemony Snicket Cupcake from Sift SF
photo by Nikki DeMartini

When I think of Spring I think, bright pops of color, sun shiny days and refreshing starts. Sift found a way to embody all of that in their Lemony Snicket cupcake. I've only been to one of their five locations but I'm sure the other Sift storefronts are just as cute. They also do weddings and cater events! And they deliver orders, too! 

Wet @ The Regency Ballroom 3/26/2019

Before wrapping up their co-headlining tour, Wet and Kilo Kish played at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. Each of them got one hour of stage time: Kilo Kish from 8:45 - 9:45, Wet from 10:15 - 11:15 and Helena Deland opened with a modest 30 minute set from 8:00 - 8:30. 

Wet @ The Regency Ballroom 3/26/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

Kilo Kish @ The Regency Ballroom 3/26/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

If you know Kilo Kish, you know that the 28 year old is known as a visual artist. Her music is described as being psychedelic, experimental hip hop. Her set was dark in an artistically eerie way but she was lively. In a mod style dress that matched her blunt hair cut, aqua-marine tights and glitter covered Mary Jane's, she hopped around the stage, enchanting the room with smooth vocals and eye locking stares. 

Lights flashed inauspicious purple, green and blue behind her on stage while spontaneous bright flashes offered fleeting glimpses of what was going on.  Cheers rose respectively from the crowd during her emotion driven,  performance arts piece that ebbed and flowed like a tempest at sea: deep, cathartic and unpredictable.

Kilo Kish @ The Regency Ballroom 3/26/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

Wet @ The Regency Ballroom 3/26/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

Wet was up next and the stage remained rather dark for their set and smokey, too thanks to an active fog machine behind the scenes. Kelly Zutrau popped in a white pant suit though, bringing all attention to the petite singer. Her perfectly red painted toe nails were exposed as she kind of floated around the stage barefoot. Her slow and steady movements made her sultry voice that much more seductive. 

While their set and stage presence was pretty serious and almost sullen at times, Zutrau offered a breath of fresh air between songs through out the melodic set. She'd brighten up, becoming pretty personable with fans: talking about how there was only a few more shows of the tour left and giving insight to some songs before playing them. When you listen to Wet, you can hear that they down to earth and real and those feelings translate to the stage with a captivating vulnerability.
Songs from Still Run and Don't You sound as graceful live as they do through headphones or speakers. They played one of my personal favorites, the new single "Old Bone" early on which surprised me a little. I guess I'm old fashioned in the sense that I think new songs, smash hits or hot singles are saved for the end of sets or en cores, never the less I was happy they played it. 

Wet @ The Regency Ballroom 3/26/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

The ambient lighting really worked with both sets that night as it fit the mood each one conveyed: raw, sensitive and strong.
 Wet and Kilo Kish are different yet similar because like so many, they somehow fit the mold of the indie music spectrum. It's difficult to understand what makes an artist an indie artist these days but whatever it is, these two have it. 

Wet @ The Regency Ballroom 3/26/2019
photo by Marc Fong 

As of right now Wet has a couple shows in May on the East Coast. 

Keep your eyes peeled to find out when you can go get Wet.