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Review Wed Oct 19 2011
Review: Zola Jesus @ Lincoln Hall, 10/12
A hush settled over Lincoln Hall as the assembled mass of neo-gothic Blade Runner enthusiasts counted backwards through Zola Jesus' intro instrumental. Singer Nika Danilova strode out draped in a white photo-reflective shawl flashback recalling of Jarodowski's Holy Mountain psychedelia come horror dystopia. The audience was held rapt by the singer stare as her cheeked reddened and a smile spread across her face. "Thank you, Chicago" the elven singer whispered before the pressure dropped and her mile wide voice rode across Chicago's north side as she opened up "Hikikomori" the first song of the night.
Zola Jesus laid heavily on the white light urban futurism of the recently released Conatus. The new songs expanded and shone brighter live. Nika's backing band continues to prove itself that last summers Pitchfork Festival performance was not a fluke. Her backing band consisting of producer/keyboardist Alex DeGroot, drummer Nick Johnson, and keyboardists Nick Turco and Shane Verwey bring the sonic tide in to mach Nika's expansive voice. The band projected foam tipped waves of sound to break upon an audience. Gone was the awkward muddy Zola Jesus of last year, replacing them was a collection of reborn star children projecting charisma.
Up front Nika live birthed a fantasy environment from her throat. The enchantment held onto the front row with the strength of Arthurian heroes. They wouldn't be surprised to see a rogue AI or wizard appear on the stage. Yet through all of futures past shimmer her core strength of writing emotive songs shine through. Hairs rose on the back of necks en masse as she belted through the Twin Peaks torch song "Night." The cinematic heaven vs. hell marching drum of "Stridulum" came alive when stripped of it's fuzzy minimalist recording gloom and expanded by the full band. Zola Jesus closed with the heartache of Stridulum's "Run Me Out" and Lincoln Hall had become a collapsing opera house occupied by the ghosts of past relationships. To the sounds of love lost Nika guided everyone by the hand.
The Zola Jesus hand picked opener was Pittsburgh's Xanopticon building spires fit only for silicon-based life forms. His unrelenting barrage of odd number fractal dance music hit with the aggressive urban hallucinogenic cadence of William Gibson's Neuromancer. Against a background of detuned static Xanopticon's spires rose to form a Borgesian Aleph. The dance floor slowly filled with brave dancers trying out for a cyberpunk future. Xanopticon held the audiences attention with periods of calming wide synth washes between the barrages.
Zola Jesus Oct 12th Set List:
Swords
Avalanche
Hikikomori
Stridulum
Collapse
Sea Talk
In Your Nature
Shivers
Seekir
Lick the Palm of the Burning Handshake
Night
Ixode
Vessel
Run Me Out
