Zola Jesus
1/19/15
The Loving Touch
as viewed by Joe La Grassa for MCB
Wisconsin's Nika Roza Danilova better known to many as Zola Jesus unleashed out a solid set at Ferndale's Loving Touch on a frigid Winter's night. An eager crowd gathered to witness the beautiful darling belt out many songs from her new album Taiga, out on Mute Records. She appeared from beyond the curtains and misty stage gracing us with her presence along with her three piece band. The synths buzzed and chimed and the live percussionist along with a trombone player crafted beautiful and dancy sounds that she flawlessly sang, crooned and screamed over. Her voice is solid, strong, comanding, angelic, smoky, sexy and sultry all at once. I felt as if I was the only one in the room and she was singing only to me. Everyone else disappeared as she cut through many tracks from Tiaga. The few people I saw in my perpherial vision were jumping, dancing, and popping around along with singing or mouthing the words and waving their hands in the air trying to catch her beautiful voice to keep with them always.
Several highlight songs included Dangerous Days, Dust, Hunger and Lawless all off Tiaga. At one point she belted out the beginning of a song in an accopella style. It was so cutting that everyone went quiet all the way to the back of the building. So strong that she could give any current pop princess or American Idol a run for their money. Zola Jesus was operatically trained as a child, which clearly shows. At first listen, I thought she sounded like Siouxsie Sioux, Liz Frasier and Nico all at once. Her songs are often etheral, gloomy, and shimmering. She along with her band blazed through a set of electronic bliss that enraptured the audience until the very end. They came out for a one song encore and disappeared back behind the smoky curtain. Several shows on the tour were sold out. She made it quite clear that she is very found of Detroit, so I hope to see her back soon, hopefully selling out a much larger venue. Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors member) opened the show with a fine set as well.
photos by Mikel O.D.