Bully Tickets

Bully tour dates

Bully is often likened to a slew of landmark '90s rock acts like Nirvana and The Breeders, but the Nashville-based four-piece is in their own league. Headed by singer, guitarist and audio engineer Alicia Bognanno, Bully has quickly pushed itself into the modern punk conversation by releasing intense bursts of confessional rock, both expressive and dynamic.

The band has played in numerous venues around the United States, both on their own Bully tour and supporting other acts. Some notable dates include the Neptune Theater in Seattle (with The Descendents), the Mercy Lounge in Nashville, Lollapalooza in Chicago and the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

Bully's background

After growing up in Rosemount, Minnesota, Bognanno took to Tennessee for college. While earning a degree in audio recording, she scored an internship with legendary producer Steve Albini at his Chicago space, Electrical Audio. She has said in interviews, however, that though working with such an audio master was formative, it wasn't Albini that drew her interest there; rather, as she told the Chicago Tribune, it was "because of the tape machines and the gear."

Nevertheless, the experience gained encouraged her to work on her own music; she took back to Middle Tennessee to finish her degree and began working on what would eventually become Feels Like, Bully's first EP.

Bognanno then moved to Nashville, where she took a job working at Battle Tapes Recording and another doing sound for a venue called Stone Fox. After a stint playing with a band called King Arthur, she started her own act, recruiting a drummer named Stewart Copeland (not the same Stewart Copeland from The Police), bassist Reece Lazarus, and guitarist Clayton Parker in 2013.

Bully's career milestones

The quartet released a limited cassette tape, and then their first true single, called "Milkman," in 2014. Shortly after, the group signed with Starline International, a record label affiliated with Columbia and, after spending some time recording at Bognanno's old stomping grounds, Electrical Audio, the group released Feels Like in June 2015.

The album was very well-received, with Pitchfork lauding it as "exhilarating, fun pop-punk," but nevertheless, Bully's time with Columbia proved short-lived. Bognanno says the band felt like they were "bottom of the barrel so everything took a long time" with the label, so they left, eventually signing with the more indie rock-friendly Sub Pop.

The band returned again to Electrical Audio in 2017 to work on their sophomore record, Losing. The band welcomed the return to Albini's studio, with Bognanno saying that it feels "more comfortable every time we go back." The work paid off; the album received positive reviews, with Pitchfork again scoring the album high, and Rolling Stone describing it as full of "incisive rage" in the best way possible.

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