It’s not often that a band’s first ever show is met with the screams of nearly 500 young, writhing bodies that already happen to know every lyric. So when Davey Havok and Jade Puget, members of California alt-rock punkers AFI, took the stage at San Fran’s famed nightclub Popscene last evening (Aug. 30) for their inaugural performance as the indulgent alt-dance duo Blaqk Audio, it was clear by the commotion that they’d done this before.
Fans waited up to 12 hours to get in, where they were serenaded with most of the tracks from the band’s sex-fueled debut Cexcells, plus a decadent, synth-driven cover of Blur’s “Girls & Boys.” Puget, sporting a crisp three-piece suit despite the rising temperatures, manned the keyboards while Havok stormed around the stage and into the faces of the front row. Hair perfectly coiffed and eyes rimmed in black, Havok brought out his signature vibrato and theatrical hand gestures on “Between Breaths (An XX Perspective),” “Where Would You Like Them Left?” and “Stiff Kittens.”
With all those synthesizers and software, something was bound to go awry. But what the show lacked in sound quality it made up for in passion and precision — “It’s the best show ever if it’s one out of one!” as Havok said.
We asked: What’s one band you’d like to see branch off and form a side project, and what kind of music would they play?”
