On Tuesday, October 8, Chrissy Costanza and VOILÀ brought their co-headlining Spin the Bottle Tour to the Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge. They delivered an intimate, interactive experience that could barely be contained within the tightly-packed venue.
The room was already near capacity by the time Ally Nicholas began her opening set. She gave a strong performance that was a worthy opening salvo for the evening’s event. After an extended intro and a little fanfare, Chrissy Costanza and VOILÀ hopped onstage together and dove right into a performance of their collaborative song “Caught It” to get the show going. The marquee event was a true co-headlining set, with VOILÀ and Costanza alternating songs from their respective catalogs, taking turns at the helm almost seamlessly. Costanza noted that the release of her debut EP, VII, was mere hours away by the time she took to the mic for some banter. Throughout the evening, she scattered her performance of the entire EP across the setlist, along with a couple unreleased songs that didn’t quite make it onto the album. Costanza made it clear that she was not running from her longtime band, Against The Current, when she included some of their songs in her performance, and she repeatedly referred to her solo path as a “side-quest.” VOILÀ spent most of the night on stage continuously, but they transitioned between backing Costanza on her songs and performing their own music. Their portion of the setlist was a mix of their latest album Glass Half Empty (Part I), new singles, and their slightly older work. VOILÀ and Costanza both managed the energy of the room with ease, and their comfort on stage and with the crowd was obvious. They interacted with the audience frequently, and made a point of shouting out longtime fans and getting up close and personal. A particular highlight of the show was when Costanza and VOILÀ’s Luke Eisner requested that the crowd “make a wall of death, but without the death” so they could venture out into the middle of the room and perform an acoustic medley of songs personal to Costanza. After a full two hours, Costanza and VOILÀ ended the concert fittingly with another of their collaborations, “7 Minutes in Hell,” to bookend their set. Despite Chrissy Costanza’s humble claims of merely side-questing, her Spin the Bottle Tour with VOILÀ delivered big on storyline quest energy and signified a new level for her impressive career.
Check out all of Greg’s photos from the show below.
