Monday, November 1st 2010

Shows:  Nico Vega

Nico Vega’s Witch Hunt

By Steve Keyes

What started out innocently enough as a night of live music with friends at The Roxy quickly devolved into something far more primal as hometown heroes Nico Vega, with local indie favorites Saint Motel in tow, unveiled a holiday-themed “Witch Hunt” performance that leaned heavily into theatrics – with fantastic result.

Wearing what looked like a wedding dress ripped from the corpse of a puritan bride, singer Aja Volkman danced around the stage like a maniacal pixie, eyes wide as she gathered as much of the experience as she could before returning to hibernation. Aja’s exposed raw energy is both fascinating to watch and dangerously infective. This music lives within Aja, Rich (guitar) and Dan (drums) and is released in what often comes across like a possessed tribal ceremony.

Sprinkled in amongst familiar tunes Gravity and Burn Burn were quite a few new songs from their upcoming sophomore album.  Although unfamiliar to the vast majority of those in attendance, they quickly won over the new ears. Closing their main set was a mock execution, not unlike the theatrics of Alice Cooper, in which two men came on stage and picked up Aja, bound to the trees via two ropes and her neck was “slit” with a knife.  Her body went momentarily limp, only to be ressurected moments later by the first chords of the anthemic barn-burner Beast.

After ending on big drama they returned for a rare encore of Wooden Dolls that resulted in a high energy sing-a-long and was a great end to an intense evening.

To catch Nico Vega on the rest of their headlining tour with Saint Motel and Imagine Dragons, head to Nico Vega’s MySpace.