“And you don’t seem to understand. . .”
It’s been a while since I’ve been to The Fonda, but it was the same as I remembered it. A cozy little old movie theater turned music venue near the end of the Hollywood Strip where just about every type of music can be heard in a given night. While I’ve been focused a lot more on heavy music for the past year or two, I couldn’t resist when I heard that bôa would be performing.
I’m an 80s baby, so like it or not, the 90s informed a lot of my musical education, and bôa was one of those bands that not only is stylistically representative of that time –although the majority of their output was in the early 2000s– but they are one of the few 90s alt-rock bands that can boast having a song used in the opening of an anime. But we’ll get to that a bit later.
Up first was Los Angeles locals Rocket came on first with a very 90s shoegaze vibe. Breathy vocals mixed with abstract guitar harmonies certainly took me back in time. I could imagine them opening for Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, or perhaps more fittingly, Lush. Though performing with a sort of disaffected indifference to the audience, their music was emotive and the guitars had a bit of extra post-hardcore crunch to them, giving it extra distinction. Overall, they were a fitting warm-up for what was to come.
Serial Experiments Lain, a strange and semi-prophetic vision of humanity’s addiction to online personas, opened every episode with this incredibly catchy and moving song called “Duvet,” and a lot of people like me who were obsessed with that weird little piece of cult animation obsessively scoured the internet in search of the band. Of course, they would break up before I ever had a chance to see them, so getting to rectify that issue almost 20 years later was definitely worth it.
bôa came out swinging and given their power you’d never have guessed they’d been an absent force in indie music for the last decade and a half. Filling in Steve Rodgers absence since the reformation was Carlos Garcia on lead guitar –who just absolutely killed it all night long– but the crowd truly erupted when Jasmine Rodgers, the voice and face of the group took her place center stage. She has always been a strong vocalist and she maintained that strength throughout the night. However, I would be absolutely remiss if I didn’t mention how tight the rhythm section was. Alex Caird is imposingly tall and makes playing the bass look effortless, a feat in itself.
While, yes, the majority of the people at the venue were probably most familiar with “Duvet” the band consciously placed it further along in the setlist allowing for older and newer fans alike to bask in their abilities and range as songwriters. It’s a move that sends a clear message that this isn’t just a cash grab reunion, but an honest reformation with an intent to continue on, and while the upcoming album Whiplash still has just under a month before it’s official release, the available singles, along with this tour have been proving that they’re here to stay and the fans are hungry for them.
