9pm // $15 // 21+
The word "bully" has a negative connotation, one heavy with menace and violence. A bully is an instigator, an aggressorsomeone who can spot your weaknesses and exploit them mercilessly. It's a curious name for a Nashville quartet that is transforming familiar '90s alt-rock (Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, Weezer) into smart, sharp-edged millennial indie rock, but "bully" is certainly an apt description for the band's churning guitars, rambunctious rhythms, and tightly coiled intensity....
9pm // $15 // 21+
The word "bully" has a negative connotation, one heavy with menace and violence. A bully is an instigator, an aggressorsomeone who can spot your weaknesses and exploit them mercilessly. It's a curious name for a Nashville quartet that is transforming familiar '90s alt-rock (Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, Weezer) into smart, sharp-edged millennial indie rock, but "bully" is certainly an apt description for the band's churning guitars, rambunctious rhythms, and tightly coiled intensity. Their debut Feels Like sounds alternately like a balled fist and a fresh bruise. More crucially, the word "bully" is a perfect distillation of frontwoman Alicia Bognanno's visceral approach to songwriting. She trades in steely observations, raw-nerve confessions, and intense anger directed almost exclusively at herselfalthough a few bystanders and bad exes might get caught in the crossfire. Her voice rises from sugar-sweet to scratchy howl as she bares her most harrowing fears to the world. In other words, Bognanno is her own bully. A deeply personal album by an artist bravely mining her own life, Feels Like is all about trying to figure yourself outabout holding yourself accountable and acting like an adult in a society that doesn't offer very many good examples. It's a coming-of-age album, which only makes Bognanno more relatable. Also hitting the stage this evening are Providence's political punk rockers DOWNTOWN BOYS, in all their saxophone-laden glory. Cleverly addressing and taking down white supremacy through bi-lingual punk dance music, DOWNTOWN BOYS are an inimitable, intersectional force to be reckoned with. Our pal (and yours) STEPHEN SOWLEY will be spinning the finest records throughout the night - what a treat it is to have him on the decks.
