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AUSTIN, TX- For most of our SXSW artist coverage, we’ll keep it relatively short and sweet. We have over 80 artists to cover, so cut us some slack! 😉 We’ll basically be formatting each post into two parts: (1) Why our contributor wanted to see this act and (2) what our contributor thought of the performance”. Easy peasy. If you want to learn more about the act, make sure you click through to their social media links to get in the know. You won’t be disappointed!
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Why I Wanted To See Bully:Â I’ve been dying to see Bully perform live since 2015 (according to my iTunes, I’ve listened to their debut album “Feels Like” 25 times, and that’s a lot considering I have over 25K songs in my library). I was particularly drawn to their lead singer’s voice (Alicia Bognanno) and the way it could go from sticky sweet to angsty howl. Pair those vocals with extremely grungy guitar riffs and veritably catch hooks, and you have a recipe for music that tickles my eardrums. Their sophomore album, “Losing”, was released in October 2017 and is just as solid a listen as “Feels Like”, and I wasn’t going to
What I Though Of Bully’s Performance:Â Their live performance was louder than I expected … and I absolutely fucking loved it. Don’t let the catchy pop-punk influence in their recordings fool you, Bully rocks and they rock hard. When Alicia screams out the lyrics to their songs, the hairs on your neck will stand on edge.
Their set was an equal mix of songs from both of their albums, so even if you weren’t too familiar with their new music (like me), you’d still be able to sing along to at least half of their set.
While Alicia spends most of the set standing center stage with her guitar, her bandmates Clayton Park and Reece Lazarus are in the wings losing themselves in abandon of the shred that they are yielding, giving the audience plenty of action to watch on stage. When Alicia put down her guitar towards the end of the set, she literally sprang to life, head banging on stage, posturing to the audience with one foot perched on a monitor and falling to her knees with a passion that was somewhat unexpected from her earlier stoic demeanor.
It took me a couple of years to catch them live, but the wait was totally worth it. Bully continues their touring with a series of dates in the midwest in April before heading overseas to take Europe by storm.
Follow Bully on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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LIVE CLIPS
Bully at Mohawk Austin for SXSW 3/12/18. Thoughts and photos coming to @BlurredCulture soon. Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/I2VnRrlh1P
— Derrick K. Lee (@methodman13) March 27, 2018