Recap Zola Jesus at The Frequency

A sense of finality hung in the air during Zola Jesus’ powerful set at the Frequency late Saturday night. Performing what was probably Nika Danilova’s last show in Madison for quite a while, Zola Jesus loaded a sweltering Frequency with a small crowd.

Saturday’s show was almost certainly the last time Zola Jesus will play to crowds that thin. Now that Danilova’s degree in philosophy at UW-Madison is mostly wrapped up, Zola Jesus has been booked as an opener on big tours with the likes of Swedish spook-out artist Fever Ray, indie-rock supergroup Wolf Parade, and British minimalists the xx. The A.V. Club can’t imagine that tickets for Zola Jesus’ next Madison show, whenever that is, will still be available after the band starts playing.

Shedding her formerly resolutely goth persona via her newly bleached blonde hair and her formerly lowest-of-the-lo-fi sound via a commanding five-piece band, the diminutive Danilova took the stage after sets from electro provocateur Jabon—who performed in a Kabuki-like mask and read from a children’s book while smoke billowed from somewhere beneath his equipment—and the post-Panda Bear, watery Euro-dance confessionals of Minneapolis’s Dada Trash Collage. After multiple live-lineup changes and expansions, Danilova finally has a band that matches her power-punch vocals, as the layered keyboard, synth, and drum parts expand Zola Jesus to crowd-flattening proportions.

The band’s set was heavy on tracks from the recently released Stridulum, and it hit all the monolithic high notes of that EP, winding from the reworked “I Can’t Stand” to the harrowing “Night” and set highlight “Manifest Destiny.” Apart from briefly conferring with the sound guy about the vocals in her monitor, Danilova kept the stage banter to a minimum, instead relying on her show-stopping opera-trained vocals—with some added depth from keyboardist Alex DeGroot singing back-up—to connect with the enthusiastic crowd.

The only complaint was that it was over just as soon as it started; the band played for about 30 minutes. But The A.V. Club is probably just feeling remorse that the last time Madison residents can get eyes on Zola Jesus for some time was as brief as it was fantastic.