While Bully’s live show has always been killer, the Nashville rockers’ 2017 second album Losing was a quantum leap from its predecessor, 2015’s ’90s-indebted Feels Like. And holy hell, have they gotten heavier, as the foursome showed at one of only two local shows so far this year. Singer-guitarist-mastermind Alicia Bognanno’s presence is arresting, her voice shifting on a dime from a sweet Kim Deal-like lilt to one of the best yells I’ve ever heard on Losing standouts “Focused,” “Seeing It” and “Feel the Same.” They’re faster now too — Hüsker Dü was never a band that Bognanno & Co. brought to mind until this performance, a development I’m super into — and they’re somehow even more unified, sounding like one big guitar, which is to say, freakishly tight. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
Best Level-Up
Bully at Third Man
Photo: Daniel Meigs
