Indie Obsessive: Milo Greene and Zella Day at The Independent in San Francisco

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Milo Greene and Zella Day at The Independent in San Francisco

Bottom line concert review – Milo Greene actually exceeded the high expectations we had for their performance, but opener Zella Day was even more of a pleasant surprise. The two acts complemented each other so well that we considered ourselves fortunate to see one of the relatively few tour stops in which they will be together. We recommend seeing either, but if you have an opportunity to see them together, don’t miss it.

Zella Day walked onto the stage with her band at about 8:15 and demonstrated a strong stage presence throughout a setlist that lasted approximately 50 minutes. Typically, we’re not fans of cover songs. Still, one of the highlights of the evening was Zella Day’s cover of the 1960’s Zombies’ hit “Time of the Season.” The Zombies' lyrics were used and the melody was the same, but the tempo was slowed (not a quick tempo song to start), the guitar was given some characteristics of shoegaze, the vocals were sultry.

While the cover may have been a highlight, the original material of Zella Day would easily have carried the performance. “Sweet Ophelia” and “Hypnotic” (the final song in the set) were particularly worthy of mention.

“Hypnotic”

“Sweet Ophelia”

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZellaDay

Website: http://www.zelladay.com/

Milo Greene is a performance chameleon, at least in our experience. At Outside Lands in 2013, it was unquestionably a guitar-heavy band. But next year, as the opener for Bombay Bicycle Club, Milo Greene was more of a Pop band. Yesterday, the band was somewhere between those two. There was a sufficient dosage of guitar for those who focus upon that instrument (like us). And there was a lightness for those with an American Bandstand approach to music (You know, the “It has a nice beat and it’s easy to dance to” approach).

Impressively, the role as vocal lead was passed among four members of Milo Greene. Very few bands have such flexibility. The responsibility of playing bass was passed among the same four, as was the time in the instrument spotlight. The highlight? – for one of us, it was the use of the twelve-string guitar. The members of Milo Greene are Robbie Arnett, Graham Fink, Marlana Sheetz, Andrew Heringer and Curtis Marrero.