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| Bully |
Mondayin'
I took it kind of easy last week show-wise. CoolMom had a business trip to DC during the first part of the week. Getting up and out to do anything has been kind of a chore for me lately; and, when the temps dropped this weekend, it sapped most of my resolve. I did get to spend some time with CoolMom following her return. We hung out and caught up on some TV shows which is one of our favorite ways to spend time.
Anyway...
By Monday, I was feeling like I should force myself to get out and "cover" something. I scrolled through the "Discover" section on Facebook and, after a while, came across the Bully / Aye Nako show at Music Hall of Williamsburg that I remembered I'd been really interested in when it first came across my feed. "Not sold out. Done."
I've had Bully's Losing in HEAVY rotation since it came out about three weeks ago. And 2015's Feels Like (along with the Bully EP) is one of my goto albums for late-night drives home from Asbury or Brooklyn. Despite my Bully fandom, I'd never managed to catch them live. The fact that Aye Nako, a band I'd already seen live a couple of times and who put out a great album of their own with this year's Silver Haze, were also on the bill made the whole thing that much more of a no-brainer.
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| Aye Nako |
I got to Music Hall of Williamsburg super-unfashionably early. I figured I'd just zone out with my phone up against the stage until the music started, but then Ed from You Don't Know Jersey showed up. We talked a little blogger inside baseball until Aye Nako came on at about 9.
The last two times I'd seen Aye Nako were in the cavernous Asbury Park Convention Hall and in a dark, red-lit space down in Austin. Jade Payne and Mars Dixon traded off on lead vocal duties throughout last night's set; and, without a doubt, Aye Nako sounded as good as I've ever heard them. Loud, sometimes discordant, but still kind of poppy, Aye Nako's 90s-inspired rock pairs well with Bully. And damn if "Particle Mace" isn't just as great live as it is on Silver Haze.
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| Aye Nako |
Bully came out at about 10 and did a roughly one-hour set that hit just about everything in their two-album catalog. Bully driving force, Alicia Bognanno, sometimes sings in a scream so forceful, it's hard to understand how she's able to speak afterwards. But, then, there she is speaking to the audience as if none of that ever happened.
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For singles like "Trying" and "Feel the Same," audience members rushed up to the stage to sing along about a foot or so from Bognanno who seemed to enjoy it. At the end of both the main set and the encore, Bognanno slammed her guitar down on the stage with a forcefulness that made me wince a little bit, even breaking a string the first time. I have to admit, though, I'm a sucker for rock theatrics; and it was pretty cool.
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It was also pretty cool that I forced myself to head out. Yeah, it's a long drive to Brooklyn; and, yeah, finding parking in Williamsburg kinda sucks. Seeing Bully live, though, has been on my list for a while now; and it all ended up being more than worth it.
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Part of the reason I get there so early is to take pictures. All of those are available in the Flickr galleries and on the Facebook page.
Bully and Aye Nako bring their tour to DC's U Street Music Hall tonight, 11/15. And I've got my fingers crossed that I'll be able to catch them again down in Austin at SXSW.
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