Review: BANKS
Photos and Review by Naba Ahmed
October 1, 2019
BANKS and Kevin Garrett rang in the first day of October with an energetic performance at the Hollywood Palladium on Tuesday night.
Garrett, an American musician from Pittsurgh, Pennsylvania, had the crowd swaying to his mellow, alternative sounds. The GRAMMY Award-nominated artist has had performances at Bonnaroo, Latitude & Longitude, and Sasquatch and is now opening for BANKS on The III Tour. The Palladium quickly filled during his set and the floor was packed while the audience waited in anticipation of BANKS’ performance.
As soon as Jillian Rose Banks, commonly referred to as BANKS, stepped on the stage, the crowd was entranced. Flanked by two dancers, they broke into a synchronized dance before she began singing “Till Now”, the first song of the night and the first song of her album III, released in July.
Being back in her hometown, she was especially excited to see such a great turnout. She talked about the dilemma she felt when deciding on a name for this album. Life is messy and it’s not just black and white, BANKS said. Rather, it is the gray area in between. At that point, she was conflicted because she didn’t want to have to narrow her album name down to just a couple words.
As a way to express how she was feeling, she wrote a poem called ‘Ode to a Gray Zone’. She debated making the whole poem the title, but decided against it because she didn’t want to appear pretentious. When she finished reciting the poem, the crowd burst into a thunderous applause and then she segued into another song from III, “Contaminated”.
She then brought out a string quartet who accompanied her during her performance of “Propaganda”. Her performance was just as much about her singing as it was about the graphics playing in the background. During this song, large black images - which looked similar to what you would find in the Rorschach test - appeared on the screen.
BANKS closed out her performance with one of her most famous songs “Beggin for Thread”, leaving the crowd begging for more.
BANKS and Kevin Garrett rang in the first day of October with an energetic performance at the Hollywood Palladium on Tuesday night.
Garrett, an American musician from Pittsurgh, Pennsylvania, had the crowd swaying to his mellow, alternative sounds. The GRAMMY Award-nominated artist has had performances at Bonnaroo, Latitude & Longitude, and Sasquatch and is now opening for BANKS on The III Tour. The Palladium quickly filled during his set and the floor was packed while the audience waited in anticipation of BANKS’ performance.
As soon as Jillian Rose Banks, commonly referred to as BANKS, stepped on the stage, the crowd was entranced. Flanked by two dancers, they broke into a synchronized dance before she began singing “Till Now”, the first song of the night and the first song of her album III, released in July.
Being back in her hometown, she was especially excited to see such a great turnout. She talked about the dilemma she felt when deciding on a name for this album. Life is messy and it’s not just black and white, BANKS said. Rather, it is the gray area in between. At that point, she was conflicted because she didn’t want to have to narrow her album name down to just a couple words.
As a way to express how she was feeling, she wrote a poem called ‘Ode to a Gray Zone’. She debated making the whole poem the title, but decided against it because she didn’t want to appear pretentious. When she finished reciting the poem, the crowd burst into a thunderous applause and then she segued into another song from III, “Contaminated”.
She then brought out a string quartet who accompanied her during her performance of “Propaganda”. Her performance was just as much about her singing as it was about the graphics playing in the background. During this song, large black images - which looked similar to what you would find in the Rorschach test - appeared on the screen.
BANKS closed out her performance with one of her most famous songs “Beggin for Thread”, leaving the crowd begging for more.