“Just how naked are we gonna get, just exactly how naked are we gonna get?” whispers Seattle native-cum-Portlander Khaela Maricich––who calls to mind a younger, hipper, way more musically talented Ellen Degeneres––as she nervously takes the stage. There is no instrumentation yet, and she keeps a beat merely by taping the microphone with her finger. Everyone standing in the audience assumed this a cappella performance was just a mic check, but as the song continues, with no abrupt mic checking end in sight, it becomes evident this is the Blow, and the audience is now fully captivated.
Of course, for the rest of the set there is music. Those addictive, plucky, body-rocking beats created by Jona Bechtolt, the Blow’s second member, are played underneath Khaela’s beautifully clean and startlingly sincere singing. The music is not live, though. Jona is nowhere to be found on stage; Kheala is up there all by herself with just a microphone and her awkward yet forceful white-girl-can-dance dance moves performed in time with the music. Plus, the solo performance makes the already heartfelt songs seem even more personal.
“You know those songs, where it’s just like ‘ugh, I want you!’?” she asks a few songs into her set, “well, those are the most interesting.” She then proceeds to tell the audience, who, as a whole, is still not at all sure what to expect from their evening, how she felt there weren’t enough songs like that out there and how she decided to write some more.
This explanation truly does explain everything: if you are at all familiar with the Blow’s album, Paper Television, you are sure to have asked yourself why are all of the songs are about some girl who constantly doubts herself (with lyrics like “I would consider myself lucky to be right in on your threesome,” “I guess I’m on the long list of girls who love the shit out of you,” or “you really wanna hold my hand?” it’s hard to focus on any other theme) and can never completely get that guy?
Well, the short answer is that the woman who wrote them thinks they’re more interesting and fun to sing. But, the long, more correct answer, is the woman who wrote them is very aware of how many people feel the same way about themselves and how difficult and awkward loving, or even just liking someone is.
It is evident that she is very, very adamant about this revelation, and, between songs, continues to talk in an animated and excited way, almost like a stand-up comic, about how strange love is. The beat keeps thumping as she tells us about this “guy who works at my work who yells at girls,” or good advice to use “if you’re out with someone and you’re not sure how things are gonna turn out.” That advice turned out to be the honest and precisely-sung chorus of the pounding, metaphor-y “Pardon Me”––“I’ve felt a heart before/And I’m learning what a heart is for/I believe. A heart. Is made to feel. The things that lay in front of it”.
The Showbox was packed with people confidently singing along with Kaehla and moving in-step with the music. The venue was also a good choice for an outfit like the Blow because somewhere bigger wouldn’t have allowed the dance club beats, intimate lyrics and delicate singing to be heard as clearly or thoughtfully. As she finished her last song and cheerfully left the stage, the whole club was filled with a feeling of contentment and silent vows made to love on your own terms could almost be heard over the applause.
-February 10, 2007
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