story + pics / Tiffany Tso
We here at Ladygunn Magazine were lucky enough to score some invites to a special live performance by Blood Orange, AKA Devonté “Dev” Hynes, at the ever-cool American Two Shot retail space slash café. A crowd of intimidatingly well-dressed scenesters (+1 unexpected Mischa Barton appearance) filled the 200 capacity space, not until after waiting through a delayed opening and a pretty strict list check. All crotchety concert complaints aside, the show was well worth the effort.
Openers Empress Of and that cornrowed guy with the open 80s suit (please excuse my ignorance) prepped the crowd for Blood Orange. EO’s danceable brand of electronic girl vocals, think Grimes x Purity Ring x Polica, made for a pleasing and easy transition into the coastal grooves of BO.
Warming up with a few of his older hits like “Sutphin Boulevard,” “Bad Girls,” and “Champagne Coast” if I am recalling correctly, Dev quickly transitioned into some new unreleased tracks with girlfriend and Friends front woman Samantha Urbani, including single “Chamakay” (which actually features Caroline of Chairlift on vocals). Empress Of singer Lorely Rodriguez also joined the stage for the single. I have not been to a small show with so much crowd involvement in a very long time — granted I have not been to a show at all in a long time. Hynes’ favorite move seemed to be keeping the audience involved in the show, wandering into the crowd several times with and without his guitar.
Near close, Dev announced that even though Sky Ferreira, for whom he wrote and produced “Everything is Embarrassing”, told him recently that she didn’t love it when he played the song live, he did it anyway. The performance ended pretty high energy with a dancing crowd and a dude behind me yelling things like “sing!” “yeah!” “do it!” — Side note: Blood Orange should totally hire this guy as a hype man.
Main point: Best show, most intimate show I have been to in years, so thank you for that!
More pics go here.
