It was quite an auspicious occasion as Zola Jesus wrapped up their month-long US tour with a show at San Diego’s legendary Casbah.
I wrote an exhaustive post the first time I’d recorded ZJ up in LA this past Halloween, so see that entry if you need any background. But I will say this about this show-
It was downright industrial. I suppose that’s more a reflection of the club’s sound system (massive), the dimensions of the room (on the small side), and the way the sound guy was mixing the band (throbbing low end synths, thumping kick drum sounds, kinda tribal sounding electronic drums). Much heavier than anything on cd from the band. There were many moments where I very much liked this sound, as in this excerpt of ‘Vessel’ from that night, but at some other times I thought the heaviness did the songs something of a disservice. But at the same time, I kept all of that propulsive, pounding low end in the final mix, because it definitely shines a new light on the songs as they are performed live.
If you’ve got a subwoofer hooked up to your system (and you really should), this’ll give it a decent workout.
Zola Jesus, 3 March 2012, live at The Casbah, San Diego.
stereo board mix
Nady stereo condenser mic for room/audience
Focusrite Saffire Pro24 preamp/interface
Logic 8 for recording, editing, mixing
Soundtrack Pro for mastering
MacBook Pro
Edit: Full set, audio only-
Zola Jesus live in San Diego, 3 March 2012 by Humorlessproductions on Mixcloud
