Song Spotlight: Leyla Ebrahimi's i'm too pretty for this (a night at Zebulon)

Coming in from New York, Persian-American Leyla Ebrahimi took to the Zebulon stage for the final School Night X KCRW night of 2025. She took to the stage in baggy pants, hoodie, and cap . . . and an infectious level of enthusiasm. She and her band opened up the set with a Led Zeppelin-ish opening for "planet you forgot me." She gave the audience a look and a smile and they responded with cheers. She then roamed the stage, pogo dancing while singing the dream pop tune. The song has these memorable lines of shared misery, "Now I'm an 18th century graveyard you're a fucking mess like me." 

Leyla Ebrahimi at Zebulon

"I love music more than anything in the entire world." The joy seen in her facial expressions throughout the set indicated that this was no throw away line.  

The song spotlight goes to "i'm too pretty for this." A non-Gen Zer may initially find those lyrics a little shallow, but the lyrics make it obvious that this is a way to say that a breakup is causing emotional pain.

Leyla Ebrahimi at Zebulon

I still leave the door cracked
So you can come back to me

The song started with Ebrahimi singing in whisper. Then there was a growing emotional angst in the vocals. There was a sense that all that pent up emotions needed a release and that happened as she dug deep and screamed out:

I found your playlist
I hate the way it makes me crash out

The crowd screamed as she sang out the chorus in raspy vocals. A person in the audience began singing one of the verses along with her. There was momentary pause that got resolved with her jumping high as her bandmates rocked out in alt rock style. The final lyrics were song out in beat poetry style. If you get the sense that Ebrahimi loves switching genres and styles at will, you've got that right. 

Leyla Ebrahimi at Zebulon

Her opening song "planet you forgot me" prepped the audience to anticipate a high energy and entertaining set while her final song "nobody matters but You" had the audience wanting more. Calls for an encore were made, but unfortunately it was a line-up with four individuals and so the crowd was left with the outro, "Only you and I." 

Setlist: planet you forgot me, say how you feel, where do you go? i'm too pretty for this, nobody matters but You.