I went to see Anika last night. The show was quite enjoyable. The Nico comparison is obvious, but the backing band sounds slightly more hip (keyboards) than the VU (guitar).
I really enjoyed the set, and the highlight for me was their tune “Yang yang.” Yoko Ono cover FYI.
Also playing were the Starving Weirdos, Humboldt’s best particulate-noise band. I enjoyed the first tune a lot — with a whiny feedback loop that seemed to be at the core of the song. Only to find out that it was unintentional. Whoops. But that tells you a lot about the Starving Weirdos — the experience, acoustics and responses are part of the music itself.