Blaqk Audio and Silent Rival at The Crocodile in Seattle

Blaqk Audio and Silent Rival perform March 21, 2019 at The Crocodile in Seattle, Washington

Blaqk Audio is tearing across North America in support of their latest release, “Only Things We Love,” finding themselves in front of a sold out crowd at Seattle’s The Crocodile only a few days after its March 15 release.

Masterminded by AFI’s Davey Havok and Jade Puget, it’d be easy to chalk up Blaqk Audio as just another side project by members of a band that cannot fulfill their creative needs, but with four full-length albums in the hopper that term should be permanently and irrevocably discarded for these two guys’ alter ego. Not surprisingly, the sold out crowd that packed the house well-before Silent Rival’s 9 pm opening set contained a large number of the AFI faithful, but once Davey and Jade took the stage it was clear that no one was there for the curiosity.

Havok is one of the great frontmen of his time and Blaqk Audio live frankly blows away the records which can never and have never been able to capture the intensity. Not surprisingly the crowd love it, singing along to the first notes of “First to Love,” through covers by George Michael and Dead or Alive to the final notes of “Semiotic Love” from their 2007 debut “CexCells.”

Mid-set someone in the crowd yelled out, “where’s Jade!?!” prompting Havok to pause and introduce his bandmate behind the keyboards and controls, barely visible shrouded in haze. Make no mistake, while Havok manned the microphone, Puget held everything else down in the most seamless yet low-key fashion imaginable.

Blaqk Audio live is something to behold and and the electronica label should not dissuade anyone who loves a good show from seeing them live, even if it means losing a few hours of sleep on a Thursday night.

Setlist