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JORDANA: LIVE FROM THE BOWERY BALLROOM



STORY_BY: LUCY BULLINGTON


A ten track journey, through Jordana Nye’s tumultuous twenties.


“This is the Lively Premonition tour and we’re gonna be playing the record from top to bottom, so deal with it,” Jordana Nye declared with a twinge of sarcasm before singing the first track on her sophomore album, “Lively Premonition.” She stood in front of her audience at The Bowery Ballroom in New York City, violin in hand, as the soft acoustic guitar and drums began. “Do you believe in love at first sight?” she sang while seamlessly dragging her bow across the strings of her violin.

The 24-year-old Maryland born Jordana Nye is widely known as the dreamy voice that sang on her collaborative album with TV Girl, Summer’s Over. In contrast to the TV girl album’s soft style, Nye took the stage with full force as she played all ten tracks on Lively Premonition.

After the first song, Jordana showed the audience her hilariously accurate Trump impression before performing “Like a Dog,” where she literally describes loving someone like a dog. She shook her tambourine playfully as she sang “To me, you’re the only one/Even when you string me along/Cause I love to be loved like a dog.” Her words seared the audience, but Nye was quick to defuse their fire with her playful charisma on stage. This is one of Nye’s many talents: the ability to sing such heavy lyrics on top of upbeat, jazz melodies. Her music highlights that the poignant parts of life are often the ones we bounce through obliviously. 

Midway through the setlist, Nye joked with the audience about drugs and alcohol before jumping into the synth pop journey of “Multitudes of Mystery.” Throughout the track, she has a fake phone call with a nameless man inviting her and her friends to a party. She yelled into the phone (her mic) “What the fuck… did you just fart?” and then proceeded to sing poetically, “Legendary, masochistic/Shields of the deepest ecstasy.” Nye’s ability to keep her audience laughing while sporadically performing touching music is something that she and few other artists can do.  



Her two middle fingers created a silhouette against the neon “Jordana” sign hung behind her. Dipping between high and low notes, she belted, “I guess you were the wrong love.” Then, once again, the audience laughed when she admitted that she “looks like she voted for Trump,” pointing to her blonde bob and pink frilly dress. 

Near the end of the set, Jordana performed “Anything for You,” a fan favorite. Alongside catchy drums and acoustic guitar, she sang intimately into her mic. Just two minutes ago, Nye had the audience laughing, now everyone was swaying silently, eyes wet with tears. 

The audience longed to be at the party Nye sang about. They raised their middle fingers at her ex-lover who they’ve never met. Nye takes her fans down to the despairing moments of heartbreak, lifts them with a light hearted joke, graces them with images of ecstasy and describes the embarrassing truths of a broken heart. Standing just five feet away from Jordana Nye, the audience rode obediently on her carousel of life, all because she invited us on a journey through her tumultuous twenties.