CHRISSY & VOILA
Chrissy & Voila, The Echo, Los Angeles, CA. 10/22/24.
On October 22nd, the last show of the US leg of Chrissy & VOILÀ Present: Spin the Bottle Tour took place at The Echo in Los Angeles. A completely sold out show, the collaborators and co-headliners were joined by Ally Nicholas, a rising star from Chicago. Starting off the night with a low-key set by Nicholas with the help of energetic guitarist Diego Ferrera and a Macbook, it felt like a portal to 90s alternative grunge rock. The feeling was solidified even more so when they performed a cover of “Today” by The Smashing Pumpkins, getting the crowd even more into it with a song everyone knew. A highlight of the short set was an unreleased song played acoustically by Nicholas, “Miss Me Next”, her angelic vocals filling the room with raw emotion.
As recent collaborators, it only made perfect sense for Chrissy Costanza and VOILÀ to tour together. The Spin the Bottle Tour is Costanza’s first tour as a solo artist, she is best known for being the frontwoman for rock band Against the Current since 2011. VOILÀ is a pop rock duo from Los Angeles consisting of vocalist Gus Ross and guitarist Luke Eisner. Costanza’s debut solo single, “7 Minutes in Hell” features VOILÀ, and her debut EP “VII” was produced with them. VOILÀ also released “Caught It” featuring Costanza on their latest album, “Glass Half Empty (Part 1)”. In the time waiting for the two headliners to start, I was wondering who would go on first, expecting a traditional co-headliner set up. To my surprise, Costanza and Ross took turns, swapping out for 2-4 songs while the rest of the band played both Chrissy and VOILÀ songs. Everyone joined on stage when playing their collaborative songs. I have never seen a co-headliner work this way, it was truly unique and made the night incredibly more interesting. Costanza and VOILÀ clearly work very well together and this tour was a brilliant idea and execution on their part. At this show, unfortunately, Ross had nearly lost his voice and Eisner was on an IV that morning due to food poisoning, but that didn't stop the crowd from enjoying the show and singing every word that much louder to help out. Their fanbase, The Magicians, decked out in light-up bunny ears, gave both artists everything they had to close out the tour the right way. Costanza had also just been in Vegas for When We Were Young Festival with Against the Current for two days which had taken a toll on her but she still gave all her energy and she sounded great as always. The long-time ATC fans were ecstatic to hear “Wildfire” and “weapon” during the show, as well as League of Legends collaboration “Legends Never Die” being the second to last song of the night. There were multiple surprises and laughs throughout the show, and everyone took time between songs to talk and joke with the crowd. Twice they brought out a wheel and called up audience members to spin it to land on a song, the first time it was rigged for a fan to propose to his girlfriend (she said yes!) before they played “It’s Got a Ring to It” with Ross and Costanza. One of my favorite parts of the show was Costanza’s gorgeous medley of “Landslide / The Middle / Misery Business / Hero too / Barely Breathing / Beauty and a Beat / A Whole New World / weapon”. She also played two unreleased songs, which definitely got everyone excited for even more new music coming soon from her. VOILÀ’s “Figure You Out” was a crowd favorite, of course, and the show finished with “7 Minutes in Hell”, everyone on stage together for the last time, thanking the audience for coming and singing along.
Shot and Written by Natalie Ryan.
