BULLY AT THE PARISH AUSTIN, TX (SHOW REVIEW)
Grunge from Nashville? It’s analogous to eating guacamole from Alaska, drinking beer from Iran, or reading a counter-culture nudist magazine from North Korea. Yet here Bully is; a female fronted quartet of punkers who struck gold with their dirty-pleasure debut album, Feels Like. Drawing a heavy influence from Brooks & Dunn, Keith Urban, and Reba, front woman Alicia Bognanno seeks to be their absolute antithesis, in every way possible. Courtney Love-esque vocals and 90’s sounding angst, sprinkled with a healthy fuck-it attitude, Bully slayed their show at the Parish Austin on Thursday night.
You know when one of the band members is wearing a shirt from the band Metz, it is a good omen of what is to come. Bully assumed the stage at exactly 11 PM, displaying punctuality that is rarely seen amongst their contemporaries. Bully opened with songs like “Milkman” and “Brainfreeze.” Bognanno’s vocals oscillate between slacker-melodic tones similar to Bethany Constentino from Best Coast and the hoarse banshee cry from Brody Dalle of the Distillers.
The lack of posturing by the band is refreshing. The unfiltered and slightly off-kilter performance radiates with influences of 90’s alt rock and riot gurrl affectation. Highlights of the set include “Trying” which begins with a whisper and builds into a thrash-fest, “Too Tough” which is hypnotically infectious, and their highest octane track ,“I Remember”, which capped off the night with a whirlwind.
Somebody in the audience yelled “Play twenty more songs!”, Bognanno laughed and replied “ We only have one record. We can barely play twenty minutes! That’s going to change when we start writing our next album though.” While Bully, doesn’t have the extensive catalogue yet, you couldn’t ask for a better start with Feels Like, and I have a hunch that these guys aren’t in for a sophomore slump.
