BODEGA | Radio Free Alice
YES, Manchester
twenty third July 2025
The post-modern Brooklyn artwork rockers pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne and rail in opposition to company rock at a wild Manchester present
“Let’s begin this shit off proper,” says BODEGA’s de facto frontman Ben Hozie because the New Yorkers take the stage within the opening evening of a brief UK tour. He then leads the band straight right into a rip-roaring cowl of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, in tribute to Ozzy Osbourne. In and of itself, this opening encapsulates the enjoyment of a BODEGA present; there’s at all times a looseness that implies something may occur.
Earlier than that, there’s an outstanding help slot from Radio Free Alice, sizzling on the heels of their present throughout city on the Citadel Resort an evening earlier. The Sydney up-and-comers ship an exciting set replete with stormy post-punk and have a ton extra UK dates to play earlier than the summer time’s out, together with a return to Manchester for Psych Fest on the finish of August.
Large issues beckon for RFA, notably if they will keep as true to themselves as BODEGA have over the previous decade. The Brooklyn outfit – at the moment a five-piece – have carved their very own lane since first making waves with their 2018 debut LP, Limitless Scroll, pairing taut post-punk with poppy melody and utilizing their songs as vessels via which to ship razor-sharp, satirical missives about trendy society. They’ve marched admirably to the beat of their very own drum ever since, as evidenced earlier this 12 months once they launched Roy in Helvetica, the primary album from their alter-egos NODEGA; a slew of these tracks make the reduce tonight.
That model of the band is them at their most livid, taking their disenchantment and utilizing it to energy noisy state-of-the-nation laments like Quantify, Month-to-month Follower and Comatose Chameleon, all of that are squalling, thrashy punk numbers. In line with the file’s themes, Hozie peppers the set with between-song commentary on the genocide in Gaza, the scourge of Spotify and, maybe much less congruously, the Shakespeare tragedy King Lear.
The brand new cuts act as a neat complement to materials from final 12 months’s very good third album, Our Model Might Be Your Life, which was a scathing takedown of the corporatisation of indie rock. It usually noticed them at their most melodic, and one in every of tonight’s standouts is Tarkovski, which has a woozy, eighties really feel to it. Maybe the first key to BODEGA’s attraction, although, is in each their rapport onstage, notably between Hozie and fellow vocalist Nikki Belfiglio, and their rapport with their viewers.
Because the curfew approaches, they start to take requests, and discerning viewers members duly have the band deal with us to fizzing variations of How Can I Assist Ya? and the proto-punk early single, Bins for the Transfer. That is true post-modern punk; BODEGA are a band with limitless studio ambition, however they nonetheless save the largest thrills for the stage.
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BODEGA might be discovered at their Fb | Instagram | and Bandcamp
Phrases by Joe Goggins: discover him on X right here
Photographs by Elliot Davies. You’ll be able to see his Creator profile right here, and can view his work right here
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