Bodega, The Trades Club. 23rd October 2022

Tonight is a definite bucket list tick, not just finally catching Bodega live, but also a foggy drive over to Hebden Bridge to visit the marvellous Trades Club. This venue has a reputation for being great and it lives up to it easily. It’s small, but with a nice wide room that even though sold out, feels comfortable. I only wish it were a bit closer to home, but instantly I know I’m going to find any excuse to come back here. You should always support independent venues like this and you can do so by getting in early to catch the support. Tonight that comes from Bull, who play folk tinged driving americana, with sublime guitars and a trombone when called for. They’re from York, I’m not sure what a band from York is supposed to sound like, but they should all sound like this, it’s rather wonderful. It’s always odd I find hearing a band live before you’ve heard a record, but I’ll be digging deeper. Where Bull are smooth, Bodega take that smoothness and inject a few razor shards to really make things exciting. I adore this band, both albums (and their accompanying sister albums) are amazing. I really don’t care what they play, they surely can’t go wrong. A couple of songs in and not only am I thinking this is great, but we’re in best gig of the year territory. The heat in the room cranks, possibly down to the drummer who’s forgone the traditional stool to dance around joyously as he pounds out the beat that’s got us all bouncing. Yes the guitars have a punk edge, the vocals an uncompromising brutality, but Bodega are a band to dance and lose your shit to. Not least when they shift gears to poppier songs like ‘How Can I Help Ya?’. They sound phenomenal. ‘Charlie’ is the breather, before we get a new one called ‘The City is Taken’ followed by the brilliant ‘Seneca the Stoic’. If you listen to one song after reading this, go for ‘Doers’ though. That’s your in, it should if you’ve any sense make you fall in love. Live it sounds immense and my ears are buzzing. They look cool as fuck and sound incredibly even better. ‘Titanic’, ‘NYC’, it’s an assault, a brilliant one and as they tear into ‘Name Escape’ and ‘No Blade of Grass’, the guitar solos shred and I’m delirious. I wanted something special for my first trip here and Bodega delivered. Thank you!! I’m gonna float back home in that fog.