Live Review: Bodega - Moth Club, London 29/03/2022
Kicking off their three-night residency at Moth Club in gigantic fashion, Bodega gave us a mammoth set of old, new, hits, and rarities, to celebrate their grand return and brand new album Broken Equipment.
In the first of three killer lineups, tonight’s support came from fresh post-punk Londoners, Media Giant, and the fiercely heavy hitting Irish punk energy of M(h)aol. Both bands drew the crowd right in, each with their own individual brash magnetism, and got us eager for more.
The New Yorkers themselves were in fighting form, bringing a slick blend of tightly grounded confidence and fearless punk fervour from top to bottom, perfectly at home among the glitz of the Moth Club walls. Having a duality of vocalists, Ben Hozie and Nikki Belfiglio are able to bounce off each other’s energy, each with their own different angle to bring. With their boundless stamina ceasing to let up for the whole 1.5 hour set, they effortlessly show off the sturdy songwriting of the latest album, while then also dropping in some tracks that are even newer still. Old favourites like “Shiny New Model” or “Name Escape” mean that things start to get messy, causing a stir and getting the sweat dripping from the ceiling.
There’s something much more intimate and exciting about being in for the first of multiple nights in the same venue – everyone’s on the same level and everything is new, with the potential of even bigger and better things to come for the band. The 5-piece definitely weren’t afraid to throw everything they had at tonight though, coming back on for what they claimed as “probably the longest encore ever at the Moth Club”, pushing on well past curfew with plenty more hits to play.
The pure guts to go out and play such a lengthy set of back-to-back bangers night after night on an extensive UK/European tour is impressive, but Bodega make it look easy. With support coming from The Umlauts, Regressive Left, Ash Kenazi and Deep Tan, the next two nights are likely to be just as much of a colossal party.
Words by Alice Jenner
Photography by Abigail Shii
