Bodega by Pooneh Ghana
Brooklyn’s arty punk commentators BODEGA have snaked through their short existence, hitting the requisite punk rock notes of personal challenges, sociopolitical woes, and the ever-changing landscape that surrounds them. A scatter chart shows a favorable likeness to long-running art punkers Wire, but where the latter evolved into an angular concept for punk experimentation, the former has turned introspective and rather lethal when dealing with matters of the heart.
Put that on the creative partnership of guitarist and vocalist Ben Hozie and singer Nikki Belfiglio who have taken the in-your-face ferocity of 2018’s Endless Scroll and worked their way into engaging – even provocative – material for their sophomore release, 2022’s Broken Equipment.
To further clarify their process, both these releases have enjoyed the archival-driven necessity of supplemental material left behind during the recording process in the forms of the live album Witness Scroll and studio session leftovers for Xtra Equipment.
On their third and most recent album, Our Brand Could Be Yr Life, Hozie and Belfiglio take the lessons learned on their first offerings and the supplemental materials released in tandem to revise 2015’s Our Brand Could Be Your Life when they performed as Bodega Bay. Before they’re faulted for revisionism, it should be pointed out that Hozie is also a writer, director, cinematographer, editor, and producer, and brings a historic sense of directorial “reimagining” he’s previously likened to the great Alfred Hitchcock and the revered Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu.
The band — rounded out by guitarist Dan Ryan, bassist Adam See and percussionist Adam Shumski — are on an ambitious tour of the U.S. and Canada before hopping over the pond for a thorough showing of their wares throughout the United Kingdom and select spots in France.
How funny would it be if in a full meta, full-circle punk rocking coinkidink, they end up on a bill with the aforementioned Wire – bringing a weird credence to their appropriation of Michael Azerrad’s polarizing chronicling of the American 1980’s punk rock scene, Our Band Could Be Your Life.
BODEGA play 8pm Thursday, May 2 at Gramps in Miami. bodega-band.com ~ Abel Folgar
