WORDS BY LUCY McLACHLAN / IMAGES BRIAN SAYLE
‘Hats Off To Future Yard For Putting On One Of The Most Exciting Bands Of The Moment’
4 years ago at possibly the hottest show on earth NYC band Bodega played Birkenhead Library in the kids section singing from an encyclopedia of Punk.
Tonight they’re at Birkenhead’s next coolest venue FutureYard bringing brand new second album Broken Equipment (and also some physical broken equipment in used drum heads for sale at the merch stand) to a sold out venue. A follow up to their debut LP Endless Scroll and more recent EP Shiny New Model.
Support came from local legends Eyesore & The Jinx and London based post punk band Deep Tan.
Even at 8pm on a Saturday Liverpool three piece Eyesore & The Jinx played to a growing crowd. With an already healthy fan base in the North West their art punk set isn’t to be missed. Telling the audience they’re going to be trialing new material in particular new song Pig Brain, old favorites like Leisure Time and On An Island are added in which already has the crowd dancing and singing along. Thankful for the gig across the water they announce The Future Is Birkenhead (as is printed into our wristbands) and the crowd is suitably warmed up for the night.
London based post punk three piece Deep Tan introduce themselves as “we are Deep Tan and this is deep fake” sang in singer Wafah’s native deep French accent. The band were also only in Birkenhead last year as part of Future Yard’s Future Now festival. Launching into a wonderfully sultry set with a pulsating baseline you could feel through the floorboards which also at times bought out a hint of disco. Reminding us of a darker and weirder Warm Drag mixed with hints of a Warmduscher bass instead of fuzzy synths, songs are broody, driving and fearsome with titles like Gender Expansion Pack and another about Furries…
New York’s Bodega bounce onstage at 10pm straight into the dance art punk they do so well. For this writer theres not a skippable track on anything they’ve put out so far. And whatever is making them “bitter harder fatter stressed out” from Doers must have done well to fuel the energy on the latest LP and in their live shows.
A mix of old and new tracks ‘Gyrate’, ‘Bookmarks’, ‘How Can I Help Ya?’, ‘Thrown’, ‘NYC (disambiguating)’, ‘Territorial Call Of The Female’ and ‘Doers.’ It felt like there were no lulls, there’s no time for boredom at a Bodega show. Each song is either a burst of pure dance energy (‘Statuette On The Console’) or melancholic guitars with a biting edge (‘Boxes For The Move’).
Singer/percussionist Nikki being front and centre complete with white 50s sunglasses dancing away with big wide arm movements extended further by pointing drumsticks. Drummer Tai is absolutely exhausting to watch a shock of red hair drumming for her life, a constant fireball of energy, at one point she’s running on the spot whilst keeping time for the band. We’re introduced to new guitarist from Baltimore as we’re told there’s just no decent guitar players in NYC anymore.
After ‘Endless Scroll’ anthems about our alter ego day jobs and people you’d rather forget in ‘Can’t Knock The Hustle’ and ‘Name Escape’ followed by new tune ‘No Blade Of Grass’ the crowd are all riled up and shouting for an encore already. Though Bodega are assuring us we’ll get an encore but there are still more songs to play. Though quickly running out of time they blast through ‘Shiny New Model’, ‘Jack In Titanic’ and ‘I Am Not A Cinephile’ in what felt like double time with the audience asking for one more song. We felt like there were so many songs that could have come but the night was cut off short by a member of staff coming on stage to say there was no time for any more. I guess most of us had last trains to get. But hats off to Future Yard for putting on one of the most exciting bands of the moment and two equally as good support. An excellent Saturday evening in Birkenhead.
SET LIST
1/ Gyrate
2/ Bookmarks
3/ How Can I Help Ya?’
4/ Thrown
5/ NYC (disambiguating)
6/ Territorial Call Of The Female
7/ Doers.
8/ Statuette On The Console
9/ Boxes For The Move Endless Scroll
10/ Can’t Knock The Hustle
11/ Name Escape
12/ No Blade Of Grass
13/ Shiny New Model
14/ Jack In Titanic
15/ I Am Not A Cinephile’
FOLLOW BODEGA
FOLLOW EYESORE AND THE JINX
FOLLOW DEEP TAN
Brian Sayle is a freelance photographer from the North West of England who has been working professionally since 2014.
He used to be a house photographer for the Academy music group but has also covered live concerts for several blogs and publications and also been in print in magazines such as Metal Hammer and Terrorizer.
Multi disaplined with a camera his main specialist areas of expertise are live performance, both theatre and music and also architecture, he has photographed buildings across the UK ranging from modern architecture to Grade I listed buildings, both commercially and for his own pleasure.
BrianSaylePhotography.co.uk
