“A lot of people come up to us after the show and ask, ‘what was that sixth song you played?’ and we always go ‘yea…that was a cover,'” remarked Alicia Bognanno, guitarist/singer for Bully in the middle of their set at the Sinclair last Saturday. That kind of self deprecation was always a hallmark of 90’s alt rock, so it’s no surprise that a band that borrows its sound from that decade also adopts its attitude. There was no reason for deprecation though, because they delivered a fantastic set including a blazing cover of Mclusky’s “No New Wave No Fun”. Boiling up until explosion, Bully ripped through most of Feels Like with Bognanno’s screaming, sustained vocals standing out front and center like she had been given lessons from Frank Black himself.

From there the night only got crazier with a relentless, pulverizing set by noise rock band Metz. Having not known much about them before the show, I was unable to take my eyes off them as they played with extreme ferocity. Imagine the hardest moments of Big Black, Jesus Lizard, Nirvana and the Pixies, all battling it out on stage together, and you might get an idea of the energy they brought. The crowd was electric, reciprocating with moshing and stage diving even when there wasn’t music playing. Singer/guitarist Alex Edkins sang and played like a demon, possessed, reaching into the bowels of his soul to pull something back up to the surface. When a technical difficulty later muted the bass during the set, drummer Hayden Menzies kept the energy alive, allowing bassist Chris Slorach to jump back in full attack mode with his instrument. For the rest of the night the band retained a vice-like grip on the audience, barely taking breaths in between songs. How they kept this up this energy for over an hour is beyond me, but I want to see it again!