Von Iva - September 2004

Viva Von Iva! Sans six-string, San Francisco's Von Iva are a welcome respite from all of those acts ditching the bass for blues-crud cred. Including bassist Elizabeth Davis-Simpson (ex-7 Year Bitch), drummer Kelly Harris, and Becky Kupersmith on keys, the band dance their rock around as vocalist Jillian Iva testifies to the transcendent powers of getting into the groove. "Vee are Von Iva, and vee like it ven you
dance," she informed a recent Li Po's crowd, and if stone-still audiences don't do it, she'll do it herself. With the soulful, real-deal delivery of a more libidinal Rachel Nagy of the Detroit Cobras, Iva struts and shimmies with rabble-rousing abandon, getting deliriously down 'n' flirty to her band's stop, drop, rock 'n' roll.

It is indeed difficult to keep from shimmying and shaking it during Von Iva live performance. The band's music has roots in soul, but does not warrant a "retro" label, they incorporate an almost disco sensibility to the traditional Motown sound. Von Iva describes their sound as "rock evolved to dance." There is an outright revJillianlist gospel feeling to Von Iva live. Standing in a mini skirt bending over the audience, Jillian evokes a preacher warning you that you will be condemned to the pits of hell if you don't have a good time. Her voice has a depth and timber that belies her size and her color. No sad sack mopey sloucher is she, her back stays straight, and her shoulders stay back as she struts around the stage. Von Iva's sound is infectious, and more than one audience members has been known to praise, repent, holler, roll and do some other things that later bring them to the confession booth. There really ain't no shame in feeling the Von Iva, they are preaching the good time gospel and that message carries, and they intend to carry it. Like a traveling tabernacle dispersing their reverberations they will carry the sound from San Francisco across the universe.

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