Zola Jesus + Xanopticon @ Il Motore

Without a doubt, this was one of the most diacritical evenings at Il Motore I have ever experienced. Up first was breakcore's lovechild, Xanopticon, performing an ecstatic collage of jungle rhythms, hazy samples and blissful delay effects. Using only his laptop, a small sampler and a mixer, he was able to pull in quite the audience, and by audience I mean goths. My two favourites were able to consistently vogue to Xanopticon's half hour performance. It brought me back to grade nine in a way I thought music and dance never, ever could achieve. Even though I had to dodge a few flailing arms and clompity-clomp combat boots, I quite enjoyed Xanny's seamless metamorphosing sound. I found his production similar to Venetian Snares and Machinochrist.

The audience got even thicker when Zola Jesus began to play. I was looking forward to this show, mainly because of how I inevitably blush whenever I hear Nika Danilova's voice. I couldn't believe the clarity of the performance, which was all thanks to their unbeatable sound engineer who made Il Motore's stinky soundgear smell like roses. I'm not being frivolous when I say that never, ever in my life have I heard drums sound so good; the toms cut through like a knife through butter and you could feel the bass kick shaking your bones.

It was a hell of a set, cute little Nika (standing 5 feet tall) even jumped off the stage to sing indie-opera while busting some strange voodoo thrash dance moves all over the crowd.

The musicianship was as impressive as the sound control. Two, sometimes three synthesizers would play so delicately and in the next moment they would ascend into a bold, dark chasm of echoes and harmonies. One member played electric drum pads that complimented the percussion of the organic drums, never missing a cue. They all had such fantastic stage presence, which gave their music a nice polished emotion that they were able to evoke so naturally. This was one of the best shows I have seen all year, so I give you praise Zola Jesus.

-Michael Cota