From the moment the lights came up with the crashing sound of G Flip’s drum kit, the concert promised to be a unique experience.
G Flip sat at the kit with a mic dangling over their head like a carrot on a stick — which should’ve looked ridiculous but instead had all the rough glamor of a rock star.
Throughout the Oct. 3 performance at The Atlantis, G Flip showed off their talent as a multi-instrumentalist, jumping from the drum kit to the guitar for song “7 Days,” from their sophomore album, “DRUMMER.” The first songs of the set were carefully choreographed so the band could swap instruments from guitar to drums as they tumbled from one song to the next with barely a breath in between.
G Flip’s performance felt like the sort of sweeping rock concert our parents might have attended, a defiant resurrection of a genre that’s been declared dead for decades.
Even G Flip’s earlier songs such as “Hyperfine,'' which tended to lean more indie pop than rock, turn into stirring anthems when performed live, complete with extended guitar solos and headbanging. Some people in the audience were even dancing, which is notoriously hard to get Washingtonians to do — at least at a pop-rock concert.
From the show's opening, the drum kit took the musical lead.
For “Rough,” every member of the band, including G Flip, stood before a drum with nothing but a backing track and G Flip’s voice to offer melody. The band formed a drum line that created an energetic percussion that pushed G Flip’s vocals above the crowd.
In one of the most powerful moments of the show, the band vacated the stage, leaving G Flip alone at the drums. They played a drum solo for the next several minutes of the concert. There was no melody to distract us, no lyrics to scream to — just the percussion of the bass and the hiss of the cymbals.
It was like G Flip was trying to share their profound love for their first instrument with the audience. This was the culmination of their childhood dream — shared with their late drum teacher — of being a drum lead pop artist. Even if you’re unaware of G Flip’s dedication to percussion, the solo is oddly breathtaking.
But, it’s when G Flip allows the rock star bravado that permeates so much of the show to fall away that they have their greatest impact.
Sitting at the piano, G Flip’s powerful vocals are on full display, getting intentionally in a way that gets lost in the guitars and drums of their bigger songs. In a melody mashup of some of their earlier tracks, with their deep, full voice, G Flip is singing a ballad to the whole audience.
“I wrote a cheesy song for my wife,” G Flip said, referencing Chrishell Stause, one of the stars of the Netflix reality show “Selling Sunset.” When the pair announced their relationship in May 2022, it introduced thousands of Americans to the Australian singer, who, at the time, had garnered lots of buzz abroad, but not yet made it as a household name in the United States.
G Flip acknowledged that several in the audience may have only discovered their music after the relationship debut, to which many audience members shouted in protest as hands went up to announce that they loved G Flip before. Still, when G Flip asked the audience who their favorite “Selling Sunset” cast member was, the answering shout of “Chrishell!” was unanimous.
G Flip said there was a time when the couple considered not showing their relationship on the show, but, “F*ck it, we gotta set an example for the next generation.”
Their lyrics, while often raw, are pretty standard pop fare about love, sex and booze. These themes are at their best in songs that focus on the more personal aspects of G Flip’s life, such as their gender identity and their wife.
In “Be Your Man,” written early in their relationship, G Flip offers themself to Stause: “I’m not a man / But I can if you want me to be / …Convinced you should run from me / I’m not what you planned / But I’ll be your man.”
When the concert ended with a rousingly loud rendition of G Flip’s lesbian anthem “GAY 4 ME” (“She said she’s only gay for me / And I don’t know what to believe”), it was clear that G Flip’s fans love them not only for their music, but for the representation that queer, femme-presenting people have so often missed in the mainstream.
This article was edited by Sara Winick, Zoe Bell, Patricia McGee and Abigail Pritchard. Copy editing done by Isabelle Kravis,Olivia Citarella and Charlie Mennuti.
