The Bohicas stopped off at Bodega on Sunday night on the tour for their debut album The Making Of. The small intimate setting seemed to disagree slightly with their riff filled, rip roaring rock; however it still made for an exciting live set from one of the most energetic up and coming bands currently touring Britain.
The atmosphere within the crowd was slightly lethargic throughout despite the Bohicas doing their upmost to change this with lead singer Dominic McGuinness attempting to chat to the crowd at several intervals. Also a stellar opening number in ‘XXX’ helped to bring some life to the crowd as the guitar driven song is enough to get anyone’s blood pumping. A series of songs along this vain followed, however this was to the detriment of the set as the Bohicas quickly became tiring. This is something that you wouldn’t want to hear about a band playing a 40 minute set on their first tour.
A few songs such as ‘Where You At’ stood out as high points of the set. Although these were few and far between as the constant high tempo started to become slightly dull and the audience were left wondering what else, if anything, the Bohicas have stored in their arsenal. The monotony of their songs does not bode well for the future as there standard indie rock fades within the plethora of other bands attempting this style. Also you can’t help but feel that they’ve come 10 years too late as they are reminiscent of a British band scene that was thriving in the mid noughties but has been exponentially declining since.
“The constant high tempo started to become dull and the audience were left wondering what else the Bohicas have in their arsenal”
However despite this the Bohicas did at times show glimpses of something more and left Nottingham on a high note with a strong ending of their lead single ‘To Die For’ and the most dynamic of their opening album ‘Swarm’. The peak of the set was the guitar solo by the extremely talented Dominic John during ‘To Die For’. John, with his leather jacket and bowler hat, makes for a charismatic lead guitarist and is categorically the strongest part of the band.
‘Swarm’ offers the strongest guitar riffs off the album combined with drums that add to the intensity of what is a solid rock song and in itself validated the ticket price. The rock quartet gave the crowd a fairly mediocre set that dragged at times during the middle but gave us all faith that they may deliver a stronger performance next time they stop by Nottingham.
Jack Smiddy
Image: Paul Hudson via Flickr
