Who on earth is Bully?
Alicia Bognanno, the master mind behind the band, is Nashville’s favorite indie rock artist. She is an expat from Minnesota, Bognanno has called Nashville home for years. She used to run the music at Stone Fox before Bully. Bully’s music has always been a honest, but this is Bognanno at her most earnest. “Lucky for You” Bognanno’s most recent album she’s touring is about her dog Mezzi dying in March of 2022.
Lucky For You
On the album title, Bognanno told Nashville Scene, “The title came from…that moment of realizing how lucky I was to have Mezzi and how much she truly elevated my life.”
“I would go through the pain all over again times 20, just to have two more minutes with her, for sure. But I think realizing [my relationship with Mezzi] wasn’t owed to me — that was a gift I was able to receive.”
Lucky for You stings with grief and feminine rage. Bognanno, like most of us, has a lot to grieve. She entered the pandemic lockdown in 2020, newly sober. As the world slowly burned, she realized the support mechanisms she relied on were gone. In addition, Lucky for You also addresses the collective grief felt in LGBTQ+ communities and women’s rights in the US over the past year,especially in the South. Ms. America reads:
“All I wanted was a daughter / Try my best to raise her right / But the whole world’s caught on fire / And I don’t wanna teach a kid to fight”
She’s got the music you’d want to hear in an old grungey room where you can see and feel it’s withstood the tests of time. She can make any room feel intimate, even the shiny, spacious Brooklyn Bowl. Bully’s show is in my top 5 of the year, and let me tell you why! Enjoy my experience and digital content edited by yours truly. The flash bulb on my film camera died, so enjoy these trippy photos I edited in Photoshop.
Meeting Bully
What made this show so special was I won tickets to Bully’s performance at the Brooklyn Bowl, a meet and greet, + signed vinyl from Lightning 100! I’d never won a giveaway before, so this was a treat. It was great to see she had such a kind and soft presence. She talked about her favorite bands she’s been listening to: My Bloody Valentine and Minuteman. It was a perfect start to an unforgettable show.
On to the show!
The night began with Bev Rage and the Drinks, a drag queen punk band from Chicago, opened and they delivered fun and sassy music to dance to. They shown especially bright in Music City ever since the ban on drag performances.
Bully attacked every word, dressed to the nines in a black lace jumpsuit, rocking with every muscle along with her songs.
“She screams, gutturally and with force the embodiment of rage and grief — setting her free from the way women are taught to push down, to hide, to ignore whatever might inconvenience someone else” Hannah Cron, The Nashville Scene
With Nashville homecoming shows, you never know who might hop on stage to play a song or two. Soccer Mommy, Shopie Allison, came out for “Lose You”. Bully said it was the first time she had guests come on stage. Boganno, as stated by the Nashville Scene, “has the kind of power that suspends space and time.” The Nashville crowd felt right at home creating mosh pits and crowd-surfing someone.
Soccer Mommy smiling at the roaring welcome from Bully’s crowd | Lomography La Sardina Capri Camera, 35mm
It was a one-of-a-kind experience to meet such a neat person and to share it with you.
BOOGIE WITH EMMA 