Bully crush hometown performance at First Avenue
by Macie Rasmussen and Laura Buhman
September 18, 2023
On Friday night, a backdrop with an image of a cherub — a childlike figure used in religious art to portray purity and innocence — hung on First Avenue’s stage. However, the performance by Bully, the alt-rock solo project of guitarist and vocalist Alicia Bognanno, was antithetical to the idea of celestial harmony. Bognanno filled her debut headlining mainroom show with sledgehammer choruses and howls accented with constant anguished facial expressions.
The Minneapolis tour stop was a bit like a hometown show. Bognanno moved many times throughout Minnesota and Illinois before graduating high school. Her introduction to music production came during her senior year at Rosemount High School, when she took an audio engineering class at the School of Environmental Studies (also known as the “Zoo School”) in Apple Valley. She is currently based in Nashville, where Bully formed in 2013.
The headliner’s set began with Bognanno reflecting on her past and repeatedly singing “I wanna feel the way I used to,” on “All I Do” from the 2023 album Lucky For You. A rearview perspective popped up throughout the night on songs like “A Love Profound” about yearning for past affection, and “I Remember” about holding onto intimate details of a tumultuous relationship.
Bully’s music bounced between tender aches and melodious wails. Grief and rage melded around a melody on songs like “Days Move Slow.” The euphoric pop-rock rush disguises the deceptively grim lyrics about the passing of her dog: “And days move slow / I'm living in the same black hole / But there's flowers on your grave that grow.” To round out the last words of the chorus, “Something's gotta change, I know,” Bognanno lifted her guitar up to her face and screamed the words into the instrument’s strings.
At times, Bognanno expanded her intrapersonal dysphoria into a broader look at the world, particularly the U.S. For the most mellow song of the evening, “Ms. America,” Bognanno stared straight ahead to sing, “All I wanted was a daughter / Try my bеst to raise her right / But the whole world's caught on fire / And I don't wanna teach a kid to fight.” Without backing drums, the words seeped deeper. Later, the artist set down her guitar and removed the mic from the stand for, “All This Noise,” to jump and sing,“I can't handle all this noise / My body is not your choice / There's no glory to be found / America's been burning down.”
With the release of Lucky For You, Bully polished the edges of their grungier debut work, but the punk energy remained, especially when played live. New music belonged alongside older tracks, like “Trash” from 2015’s Feels Like, when Bognanno repeatedly yelled, “Feels like trash!” in a gritty tone. Off stage, people kept head bangs in their own personal space. Someone could have matched Bognanno’s energy by pushing others around, but no one initiated a mosh session. Nevertheless, Bully’s spirit remained high.
The band professionally executed garage-show energy on First Avenue’s stage and transitioned from one track to the next smoothly. There was not a moment of silence throughout the night: Single-note drones played between each song when the musicians tuned instruments and took quick water breaks. The eerie noise created a floating, purgatorial space while waiting for the band to tug the audience back into a fiery sonic territory. All bandmates, Elle Puckett (guitar/harmonica), Nick Byrd (bass), and Benji Coale (drums), appeared in their own worlds, focused intently on the music.
When Bognanno returned to the stage for an encore, she spoke to the crowd for the first time all night and thanked everyone for coming to the show, which she had been thinking about for a long time: “We’ve played 7th St. Entry, then the Fine Line, and every time I’m like, ‘One day, I’ll play First Ave.’” Cheers erupted. The singer voiced her love for the Midwest, calling Minneapolis and Chicago her favorite places to play, and First Avenue the “best venue in the world.” As much as her stage persona resembled someone urgent to unleash pummeling torment, her spoken words were filled with calm, down-to-earth gratitude: “If you knew how [First Avenue] treated the artists that came through here, it’s like,” she said, followed by a chef’s kiss gesture. “Support this venue. It’s incredible.”
After beginning the show with reflection, Bognanno's performance ended with a glance toward the future. Following an unreleased song and a cover of Jane’s Addiction's 1988 track “Jane Says” played solo, band members rejoined the stage to aid the singer’s search for escapism on the final track, “Milkman.” Voyaging through the hellish landscape life can seem like sometimes, Bognanno sang, “I could be a milkman / A good milkman I would be, I would be,” as if striving to become a virtuous being — like the cherub behind her.
The evening began with the Louisville trio Wombo. Vocalist and bassist Sydney Chadwick led the band with deadpan post-punk energy, mid-range vocals, and effortless bass strokes. Cameron Lowe played sharp, intricate guitar chords with strings spurring out in every direction at the head of his instrument, and Joel Taylor held the psychedelic energy together with simple drum percussion to play songs from the June release of their EP Slab. At times, it was difficult to understand the words Chadwichk was singing; other times, it was unclear if there were words at all, or just drawn-out vocal harmonies. At least one person received the answer: After finishing an unreleased song, Chadwick asked if anyone wanted the lyrics, crumpled up a piece of paper, threw it into the crowd, and apologized when it hit someone in the face.
Setlist
All I Do
Where to Start
Hard to Love
I Remember
Change Your Mind
How Will I Know
A Wonderful Life
Running
Trash
Feel the Same
A Love Profound
You
Prism
Trying
Ms. America
Lose You
Days Move Slow
All This Noise
Encore
Unreleased song
Jane Says (Jane’s Addiction cover)
Milkman