Blu DeTiger performing at Irving Plaza in New York, NY on April 27th, 2024.
Photos and words by Carlo De Dios
About Blu DeTiger
Blu DeTiger, born and raised in New York City, has been a household name here even before attaining TikTok viral fame or becoming a breakout star after signing with Capitol Records. I have been a fan of Blu for years now after discovering her in the NY underground music scene in 2018. Her talent, charisma, and star potential as a bass player and DJ always stood out above everyone else. For years, Blu would grind relentlessly night after night, playing gigs all over the city with bands willing to let her join. However, she would quickly outperform and outgrow them all, and it wasn’t very long until big established artists, such as Chromeo, Caroline Polachek, Jack Antonoff, and Olivia Rodrigo, would take notice and enlist her talents. Despite all those successes, Blu never lost focus on working on her own music and continued to develop as a songwriter, crafting her own voice.
Show Review
This year, Blu has been on tour to support her debut album, All I Ever Want Is Everything. She’s been proving to the world, city by city, that she’s the complete pop artist that we New Yorkers always knew her to be. I was able to catch her show this past Saturday night at Irving Plaza and she completely lit up the stage.
Blu opened the show with her appropriately catchy, chill pop-funk banger, “Disappearing”—a song that she wrote and co-produced with synth-pop duo Magdalena Bay. Blu and her trio, which includes her brother, Rex DeTiger, on drums and Donnie Laudicinia, on guitars, immediately set the tone for the night. These are all high-level musicians at the top of their game delivering perfect pop-funky vibes. I could just tell that we were in for a wild, fun time. Blu’s signature instrument, the bass guitar, feels like an extension of her body at this point, something that she barely even needs to think about. She was purely focused on entertaining the audience with her personality and charisma. Naturally, she has become one of the leading ambassadors of the instrument, inspiring a new wave of Gen Z artists to reevaluate and pick up the bass—so much that she even brought up a fan on stage every show on her last tour to jam on the bass guitar with her! Fender probably owes a lot of bass guitar sales to Blu.
The rest of her set proved that this album was meant to be played live. Her groovy funk-inspired hooks created such a danceable vibe that’s infectious to even those unfamiliar with her music. The moment she played “Dangerous Game,” with her playful Prince-inspired vocal line delivery, you couldn’t help but jump up and down on the floor. As she went into “Expensive Money,” she brought down NY party it-girl, Linux, to dance and sing with her which was such an unexpected surprise. (Blu used one of her drunk voice memos as a sample on this track!)
Blu perfectly balanced her setlist with songs from her new album as well as some older fan favorites. Of course she included “Vintage” as part of the show which I feel is one of Blu’s signature trademark songs that perfectly encapsulates her vibe and personality. She also performed “Impostor Syndrome” from her new album which cooled the energy of the room down for a little bit. This song showed a rare vulnerable side of Blu showing that even someone as talented as her can experience moments of self-doubt.
In-between songs, hardcore Blu fans, aka her “Blu-berries,” were screaming for her to play “Toast With the Butter” which Blu was happy to indulge for a little bit. She even played one of my personal favorites, “Night Shade,” a song that I have had on constant repeat on Spotify. I expected this part of the show to be the peak, but the crowd’s energy continued to climb. Blu had complete control of the stage until her last moments on stage. During her encore song, the crowd went into complete “Overdrive” and the room became a total celebratory affair. This show felt like a full-circle moment for Blu and as a long-time fan, this show felt particularly special for me as well.
Check out Blu DeTiger here!
Catch Blu DeTiger on the rest of her tour here!
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