Presented by KFAI
Thursday, May 29, 2025
6:30 pm Doors // 7:30 pm Music
All Ages
$30 ($38.07 w. taxes/fees) Advance General Admission
$35 ($40 w. taxes/fees) At The Door General Admission
Ticket purchases are final and non-refundable
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Blending stunning vocals, strong synth processing, and equal measures of magic and alchemy, Zola Jesus makes dark and atmospheric vibes, pop-propelled by deep ruminations around silence and absence. The classically-trained opera singer turned goth/synth-pop siren is currently touring in support of her latest release, Arkhon (Sacred Bones).
Zola Jesus aka Nika is an American born singer, songwriter and producer. Since 2008, she has released two EPs and seven full-length albums primarily on NY multi-decade tastemaker label, Sacred Bones.
Nika began training as an opera singer at the age of 10. She dismantled that training to deliver her breakthrough lo-fi record The Spoils in 2009, most of which she recorded as an undergrad in her dorm room at University of Wisconsin, Madison. On the release of her follow-up EP, Stridulum, NME declared her “goth’s new figurehead.” A few years later, The Los Angeles Times described her as, “a focused, serious creator with a solid aesthetic, breathtaking musical vocabulary and a confident vision.”
Both publications turned out to be right. Her unmissable voice cuts through the fascia of reality. In the last fifteen years, Nika has created a catalog of music which shall forever remain in the lexicon of alternative music of the 21st century. She will be in the textbooks as a genre defining artist of this generation, who served as a template for all of modern goth and by proxy, much of SoundCloud rap, amongst many other things.
Zola Jesus has collaborated with David Lynch, Big Dean Hurley, David Byrne, Jean Claude Vannier, Johnny Jewel, Run the Jewels, JG Thirlwell, The Orbital, Flood, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, and Jim Jarmusch. She has appeared on Later… with Jools Holland and Late Night with Conan O’Brien along with El-P. She has also been featured on the cover of The Fader, and recently, in Architectural Digest, for her self-designed home, in the woods of northern Wisconsin.
