Photos: Bully at the Lodge Room

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Bully at the Lodge Room (Photo by Notes From Vivace)

In support of her 2020 album release “Sugaregg,” Bully steered her cross-country tour to the Lodge Room this weekend, with Saturday night’s show being a sold-out affair.

Singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer Alicia Bognanno didn’t let the audience ease into the set, launching head-on into the album-opening rager, “Add It On,” speeding along at double time. The only respite allowed were brief moments of guitar tuning. The band teased hyper-speed and guitar riffs mid-show with the song “Stuck in Your Head,” which starts out with the joking lyrics, “Oh yeah, I just wanted you to pick up the tempo.” As the set headed toward its conclusion, the song “I Remember” had lyrics that hit home to everyone in the audience — if perhaps due to different memories — “I remember my old habits / I remember getting too fucked up / And I remember throwing up in your car.”

Every bounce and jump led to roars from the crowd, Bognanno’s body and facial expressions highlighting a range of emotions from anxiety to joy, vulnerability to fierceness. She ran a tight ship with her band, expecting the same from the audience so that everyone could enjoy the music without harassment. (Security was called upon at one point to show somebody in the crowd the door.)

The hour-long set allowed them to zip through an 18-song setlist with songs from not only “Sugaregg,” but also from the two previous albums “Feels Like” (2015) and “Losing” (2017).

Opening up the night was Lightning Bug from New York. The band’s plaintive songs were allowed to flow to a thoughtful conclusion with guitar plucks that graced the strings. Lead singer Audrey Kang mentioned that the band had spent their afternoon at GameHaüs Café. There was a bit of surprise that only one person in the audience had ever been to the Glendale spot.

Setlist: Add It On, Six, Feel the Same, Trash, Where To Start, Brainfreeze, Come Down, Let You, Stuck in Your Head, Prism, You, Kills to Be Resistant, Blame, Focused, Trying, I Remember, Hours and Hours, Milkman

Photos and recap by Notes From Vivace