Alice Glass and Zola Jesus powerfully teamed up for a co-headlining show at the Teragram Ballroom on Thursday night. In one sequence unrelated to the music, 2018 was summed up in a nutshell.
“This is a song for my uncle who attempted suicide,” Nika Danilova aka Zola Jesus said as she was about to play her song “Witness”.
“Show us your tits,” some asshole man up front yelled at her. It’s sickening that he would yell this at all obviously, but especially timing it after the performer had just revealed something very personal.
“I will never show you my tits — ever,” Danilova shot back without hesitation, cheered on by the rest of the crowd who had groaned just moments before. In 2018, no doubt Trump has emboldened assholes like the heckler to be more openly misogynistic than ever before. If the president can act like a total ass clown, why can’t I? he probably thinks.
But in 2018 it’s becoming more common for these harassed women to shout their oppressors down, thanks in part to the #MeToo movement that’s taken shape.
Zola Jesus pulled largely from her most recent record Okovi during her set, an album that runs the gamut in terms of genre and mood. The live setup has Danilova along with a violinist and multi-instrumentalist. Danilova’s booming, powerful voice brings as much bass through the floor as anything else happening on stage.
Glass took the stage afterwards. She’s been through a ton having been taken to court from former Crystal Castles bandmate Ethan Kath over the public allegations she made regarding his abuse of her. That lawsuit was “effectively dismissed” in February.
This marked her first headline tour since going on her own after dropping her debut self-titled solo EP. Some of her solo jams have a much more upbeat melody and rhythm to them than almost anything produced as part of Crystal Castles, which relied heavily on dark and somber tones. Seeing her dip into her past for “Celestica” was a memorable moment, almost as if it was a signal that Glass has started to find peace with her past.
She closed her set with the brutal “Cease and Desist” — a song likely playing off the fact that her former bandmate and abuser sent her one. Glass once wrote that the song was a “call to arms for survivors” — hopefully the asshole who shouted something stupid earlier saw the strength in Glass’ eyes.
Photos by Tim Aarons
