There was a lot of talk about what a good fit tonight’s bill was going to be, a kind of implied archaic view: two solo women must be the same type of music. The reality couldn’t really be less from truth, with both owing a huge amount to two totally different types of music – Nika Roza Danilova’s melodramatic goth Siouxsie schtick couldn’t be less like the grunge revival of Erika M. Anderson. That is both the evening's primary strength and downfall – two sets, both at relatively short length, that both got samey too fast. But salvaged by the big shift in style.
EMA provides the better of the two sets tonight, with an enthusiasm and eagerness that would have been cringey had she been the support, and not practically a shared headliner. The set borrows heavily from her only full length so far, and despite the range and incredible bass-drop present in set highlight 'Grey Ship', the performance is sonically monotonous, but made memorable due to her animated demeanour, smashing up her guitar not once but twice. Like Best Coast’s past with Pocahaunted, it’s almost disheartening to see an an artist with an interesting and avant-garde past (in EMA’s case her excellent work with Gowns) sell themselves short by performing retrograde and derivative material, though admittedly done particularly well.
After that follows Zola Jesus with a set heavy from last year's Stridulum and Valusia EPs, and recent dud Conatus. While the EPs were undoubtedly two of 2010's best releases, the weakness of the LP is exactly the weakness of her performance tonight; the set gets rather stale and samey after just fifteen minutes, which a shame because the young singer has released such a diverse catalogue of material in her short career thus far. The instrumentation doesn't help with a few guys occasionally pressing some buttons on laptops, and a way too enthusiastic metal-esque drummer distracting from the vocals, which are by her biggest asset. It’s rare that one is given the justification to say this, but a backing track would do just as good of a job – because Danilova’s incredible vocals are the only strength of this set, and whilst she’s amongst the best live vocalists I’ve witnessed, it’s not quite enough to save it from being a slog to get through.