Zella Day performed at Mercury Lounge last week!
First, let me thank Izzy, from the blog Qthee, for bringing Zella Day to my attention in a post a couple months ago here. Her music is right up my alley and goes along with the other strong female singer-songwriters I listen to from various genres like Florence Welch, Stevie Knicks, BANKS, Lissie, Georgia from Broods, Jessie Ware, Meg Myers and more.
Meet Zella Day
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Zella Day let me give you a bit of background. Zella is an American singer from Arizona who released her first full-length album earlier in June called Kicker. Her album is one that I’ve been listening to pretty religiously lately and after seeing her live and hearing her commentary on certain songs it only makes me even more interested in her music.
Mercury Lounge
With that being said, I have to admit that this was not exactly my favorite concert experience. This had nothing to do with Zella Day, her voice, or her stage presence. She was the bright spot that allowed me to enjoy the hour or so long set and capture moments like the ones seen on my Instagram. Instead, my grievances are solely due to the fact that the venue was almost unbearably hot.
I’m not sure how many of you have been to Mercury Lounge since some of you are from out of state or out of the country, but it’s an intimate downtown space. When the room filled up, and it filled up quickly since this was a sold out show, it seemed like the air in the room went out. There were times during her performance where even she complained about how uncomfortably hot it was getting. I was in the crowd so I can only imagine how hot she was as she worked the stage under those bright lights.
There is a silver lining, though. It wasn’t mine since I was pretty close to the front of the stage, but at one point she jumped off the stage and performed her song “Compass” in the middle of the crowd towards the back. She exclaimed that it was too hot on the stage so she was going to perform it down out from under the lights. For a small moment, I wished I was in the back – just for a moment. hah.
The Music
Zella Day tells a story with each song and you really feel like she’s sharing pieces of her life with you. She was really charming and funny and she surprised me with a few covers of some of my favorite songs like “Time of the Season” by The Zombies and “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes. I would certainly recommend that you go see her!
BONUS: Her bandmates were a smorgasbord of different types of attractive. Of course, I only have eyes for A, but I have no problem keeping a lookout for my single friends and now, of course, you lovely readers too! Haha. Check out a few of my fave songs below!
What do you think? Any Zella Day fans? Share your thoughts and expect highlights from The Kooks, Atlas Genius and Joywave along with other weekly Music Monday picks!