Tiombe Lockhart of Cubic Zirconia Photo by Chad Batka

Before this show I had never heard of Cubic Zirconia. Judging by the rest of the audience I was the only one. The main reason I went to this show was because I heard Head Automatica were on the bill. I’ve been a fan of Head Automatica since their debut in 2004 and had never seen them live. Their set was great if not too short but they were definitely the oddballs of the night. They are heavily dance influenced but they are still a rock band. Cubic Zirconia are a whole other species. Their set was all synth-heavy club jams that got the whole, ridiculously attractive, audience dancing. They had a guitarist but I couldn’t hear a single note he played. The focus was mainly on the rhythm. Throbbing bass notes mixed with huge amounts of drumming, both electronic and live. They spiced up this sound by adding lots of live Latin percussion which gave another interesting element to their music. The focal point of their performance was their very confident singer. In an outfit that screamed “wardrobe malfunction” she still danced like a madwoman, taking breaks in between to sing a little bit. Their music is not really my thing but I can’t judge them based on that. They turned a rock club into an all-out dance party and that is impressive. Club hoppers and indie rockers alike were mesmerized by the beat and understandably so. Cubic Zirconia are very good at what they do.

Jonathan Zuckerman