Scene and Heard

Zola Jesus at Home Sweet Home, Lower East Side, NYC

Photos by Nate Dorr » Every Wednesday at Home Sweet Home, a taxidermy- and chandelier-strung LES ex-bean sprout factory, is WIERD. I have no idea what the place is like normally, but WIERD sees the basement bar wrapped in tendrils of fog machine discharge and the icily synthetic sounds of goth, EBM, and darkwave, along with plenty of moving bodies on the narrow dance floor.

Text by Nate Dorr
Posted on July 02, 2009

This musical territory always seems like a mirror-world version of normal bar dance selections to me: despite the ominous bass crackles and pervading darkness, much of it is so catchy as to seem familiar before you've heard it, within a couple bars of intro keys. Lost, more interesting cousins to the worn-out 80s-night staples we all alternately love and hate. Unless you've specifically sought out nights like WIERD, or read 20 Jazz Funk Greats all the time, you're not likely to have heard much of any of it, besides the original progenitors like Joy Division and Depeche Mode. As Silk Flower Ethan Swan observed, (I'm paraphrasing:) we couldn't even tell if this stuff was actually from back then, or came out last year, but it was all great. (also around: Erick from Golden Error, Anna from These Are Powers, and BJ from Puttin' on the Ritz).

And what were all these people (as well as myself) at WIERD for? Zola Jesus, a striking new talent out of Madison Wisconsin originally introduced to me via the afore-mentioned BJ Rubin's Pukekos. I can see how Zola (real name Nika Roza Danilova), with her steady machine beats and minimal synth licks, fits fairly naturally into the afore-mentioned goth/darkwave ouevre of the night, but I'd be quicker to compare Danilova's subtler work to drone/noise chanteuse types like Grouper or Inca Ore, or perhaps to Jana Hunter back when she was still letting her voice clip and distort over her delicate folk compositions. Because despite powerful pipes that easily stand on their own, Danilova more often than not overdrives her voice into a harsh, warped grandeur, or else breaks phrases to shriek wordlessly. All the while prowling the stage magnetically and perhaps throwing herself to the ground.

Zola Jesus is only in town for a few days, but will also be playing Friday at Sculpture Center in Queens, this time with L.A. import Lucky Dragons and Wet Hair (current project of Shawn Raccoo-oo-oon Reed). 5pm, 4419 Purves St, Long Island City.