BANKS @ South Side Ballroom, Dallas, TX

Words and photos by Scott Rowe

Jillian Banks, who goes artistically as BANKS, made her first visit to Dallas since 2017's The Altar Tour. In fact at that show, she also played within the Gilley's complex at the smaller South Side Music Hall (capacity 1,500). I initially was planned to cover that but was ultimately stuck at Depeche Mode's set at the Starplex Pavilion (that's Dos Equis Pavilion for all of you history buffs). With 2019's III under her belt and a couple of years taken away from COVID-19, she finally made her triumphant return to the largest room within Gilley's, the 4,000-capacity South Side Ballroom. With her most recent release in tow, Serpentina, The Serpentina Tour gave the near-capacity crowd everything they wanted and more.

With larger tours, you'd expect a large-scale production with over-the-top stage design with limitless LED panels. But I was surprised that this tour was fairly low-scale in terms of production, but that's not to say it wasn't well thought out. This allowed the show to be solely focused on Serpentina and BANKS in general.

With a backing band and two flanking dancers, BANKS casually, seductively, charismatically, joyfully, amazingly rolled through 17 songs during her set. It's hard not to list the adjectives to describe her performance because it cannot be singled down to just one. Opening the show with the first two songs from Serpentina, BANKS takes the crowd into the palm of her hand. She roams the stage, making purposeful eye contact with as many crowd members as she can, making those subtle connections that make a performance that much more meaningful. While bantering with the crowd, she holds back, expressing that this is only the second stop on their tour and that these three long years (of COVID) were hard but we were all here. I have heard other artists make mention of the pandemic, but this one was definitely heartfelt. Even though the bulk of the set (eight out of seventeen) came from Serpentina, the crowd went crazy for some her classic hits with "Gemini Feed", "Fuck with Myself", and "Beggin' for Thread". The show was a welcome site on this Wednesday night.

Photos of the show are below:

enjoy.