Zola Jesus at Red7 in Austin, TX
Zola Jesus is a music mystic who deftly oscillates between a variety of genres that define her sound as eclectic but predominately soul. Nika Danilova, who found her voice growing up in the rural Wisconsin solitude with Russian-immigrant parents, combines her classically trained opera voice with a heavily Talking Heads, Dead Kennedys, and Throbbing Gristle-influenced upbringing. Now Nika has fully morphed into the artistic musician and force of nature that is Zola Jesus, and upon arriving in Austin this past Tuesday she took to shaking convention and absolutely stunning the crowd gathered before her.
A perfect preamble to the gospel of Zola Jesus included the sisters Angel and Arlene Deradoorian who created angelic choruses and captivated the crowd as the opening act, Deradoorian. The two sisters looped beats over simplistic keyboard harmonies summoning ethereal soundscapes that ignited the crowd’s imagination and perfectly complemented Zola’s act.
Completely veiled in black, Zola Jesus assumed the stage clasping a cup of effervescent smoke that spilled out onto the floor. She then launched into the self-titled single off of her new albumTaiga, an ambient track that suddenly lurches into an industrial noise punk thrashing. Zola whipped her hair around violently in metal head fashion while maintaining perfect control of her vocals and movements.
The next track was the ANTHEMIC “Dangerous Days”, also off of the new album, which pulses and throbs into a dance party at its chorus and fully displays the awe-inspiring range of Zola’s versatile yet voluminous vocal stylings. “Dust” unleashed a bluesy medley of gospel-inspired music while “Hunger” showed the frenetic whirlwind of synths, pulsating percussion, and goddess-like vocals. However, no other song was as gravitating as “Nail” which Zola began singing a cappella and silenced the room with her seriousness and fragility.
Zola somehow chauffeurs her voice into industrial trances, synth ANTHEMS, and shamanistic chants that all share a streak of anti-authoritarian nature. She simply cannot be contained, nor is she bound by the status quo, and possesses the anarchic and riotous spirit of punk while exhibiting her natural talent of angelic vocal prowess.
While the night ended with an encore that included the stellar vocal performances of both “SKIN” and “Vessel”, but returned to a more somber and pensive mood. Zola’s true ethos andraison d’etre is to test limits and break with convention. Her lack of conformity to genres and boundaries lets her explore the extremities of different sounds, leaving her sounding truly unique and her performances a near religious experience.
