{"id":38157,"date":"2015-10-12T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T15:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=38157"},"modified":"2016-05-12T01:34:17","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T06:34:17","slug":"featured-concerts-bully-1082015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2015\/10\/12\/featured-concerts-bully-1082015\/","title":{"rendered":"Featured Concerts: Bully at The Bottleneck"},"content":{"rendered":"

The night of October 8th, the Bottleneck opened to Bully with openers Fake Limbs
\nand Heat. The set up of the show had a\u00a0line-up so heavily varied in sound, headlined by a
\nbreaking band and the fact on that it was held on the cusp of a weeknight, which alluded\u00a0to the
\nfeeling that the show could have gone either way. Thankfully, the result was a three-hour
\nlong show that was worth every cent.<\/p>\n

The show kicked off at around 8 p.m. with Chicago-based band, Fake Limbs.\u00a0Sonically,\u00a0its hard to categorize Fake Limbs as anything else but punk, as it should be. To\u00a0put it briefly, Fake Limbs were a surprise\u2013coming out of the blue with sarcastic and\u00a0singsong moaning that evolved into rhythmic howling that was incredibly in-sync with\u00a0every member of the band. Unconventional with a touch of the sardonic tone of Minor\u00a0Threat, the vocals of front man Stephan Sowley were nearly impossible to understand,\u00a0but that was all apart of the sound itself: loud, bold, and unpredictable. It was easy to\u00a0imagine Sowley as lunatic drug-addled preacher whose words were never quite\u00a0intelligible, but were impressive and seemed important.<\/p>\n

After the third song, the whole\u00a0band was visibly sweating, which serves as a testament
\nto the fact that the clean and gritty\u00a0instrumentation was loaded with energy. These
\nguys beat you over the head with some\u00a0nasty, grungy punk accompanied by good
\nold-fashioned death metal guitar solos.<\/p>\n

\"Heat\"<\/a>Perhaps the biggest downside was the relatively empty dance floor of concertgoers\u00a0holding off until Bully went on at 9:45 p.m. Fake Limbs exceeded all expectation.\u00a0Fake Limbs was then succeeded by Montreal-based band, Heat. Heat was a\u00a0somewhat clich\u00e9 sounding college band who presented with a calm, yet almost disinterested
\nsense of urgency. Going on at around 9:00 p.m. or so, professionalism was key.\u00a0Heat played a very solid set\u2013a clean and very well rehearsed line-up of songs that were\u00a0easy to the ear. The vocals kicked in with a very clear sound\u00a0of “Bob Dylan gone Jesus and\u00a0Mary Chain” tone. However, compared to the first band, there was little energy in how\u00a0they played. Though the indie-alternative “chill-wave” vibe\u00a0conflicted with the flow of the Fake\u00a0Limbs, the songs ultimately set the stage for Bully very well.<\/p>\n

Coming on at about 10 pm, Bully, from the first song, made it clear that they
\ndeserved to headline. From the banshee screech of vocalist Alicia Bognanno, to the
\nprofessional and ear-shattering blast of the guitar, back-lined by a crawling bass and
\nheart-skipping beat, Bully nailed it. They presented with a relaxed air, which flowed
\nas the set\u00a0grew more aggressive.<\/p>\n

Bognanno has a distinctly astute ear for timing, as the vocals ranged from screaming rage\"Bully\"<\/a>
\nto clear and sweet as honey. This\u00a0is particularly notable considering that Bognanno, at\u00a0times, appeared dangerously close to an explosion, often appearing to dare the crowd to\u00a0piss her off. Their aptitude for stage performance casted them leagues ahead of any\u00a0worries that they might be a simple \u201cstudio band.\u201d With a playfully angry stage presence,\u00a0emotion was packed behind each song and the crowd was satisfied through each second.<\/p>\n

The final song went out with an explosion of fun and punk bravado as Fake Limbs front\u00a0man Stephen Sowley joined Bully on stage to cover the Butthole Surfer\u2019s \u201cWho the Hell\u00a0was in My Room Last Night?\u201d It was arguably one of the most well executed conclusions\u00a0to a concert that one could hope for. Bully was worth it and more.<\/p>\n

Written in cooperation with Lance Faegenburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The night of October 8th, the Bottleneck opened to Bully with openers Fake Limbs and Heat. The set up of the show had a\u00a0line-up so heavily varied in sound, headlined by a breaking band and the fact on that it was held on the cusp of a weeknight, which alluded\u00a0to the feeling that the show could have gone either way. Thankfully, the result was a three-hour long show that was worth every cent. The show kicked off at around 8 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7465,"featured_media":38161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4,3268],"tags":[3721,3667],"class_list":["post-38157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-on-kjhk","category-music","category-music-articles","tag-bully","tag-featured-concerts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/IMG_0871.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7465"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}