Few bands can claim to have written a song called “Strange Few” because, as lead singer Jasmine Rodgers quipped, “we’re strange, and there’s few of us maybe?” On September 20, British indie alt-rock band bôa played at Thalia Hall, the sixth stop in its sold-out North America tour; original band members Rodgers (vocals, guitar) and Alex Caird (bass) were joined on stage by Robin Diaz (drums), Harry Smith (multi-instrumentalist), Carlos Garcia (guitar), and Alex Patterson (violin). Original drummer Lee Sullivan was absent from the show.
Best known for their song “Duvet,” which first gained international attention in the late 1990s as the opening theme for the cult-classic anime “Serial Experiments Lain” and later experienced a resurgence in popularity via TikTok in 2021, bôa has returned to the music world after a nearly 20-year hiatus following the release of their last album Get There in 2005. As a result, they have an extremely varied fan base, from middle-aged fans of turn-of-the-century indie rock to cosplayers possibly too young to enter the venue.
Bôa’s music was ethereal, mystical, and perhaps even a little bit haunting? Rodgers’s use of flips and vocalization, coupled with the folkier, indie rock instrumentals created a nostalgic sound, reminiscent of The Cranberries, if a little more eerie.
Bôa’s setlist spanned their discography, with a balanced mix of tracks from their albums Twilight, Get There, and Whiplash. Opening with the raw guitar riffs of “Deeply,” bôa wasted no time reintroducing themselves to the U.S. scene. “We’ve been waiting a long time to come here, haven’t we?” Rodgers remarked to her bandmates on stage.
They kept the momentum high by following up with the similarly fast-paced “Angry” and equally shoutable “For Jasmine,” my personal favorite track of theirs. Rodgers’s vocals alternate between soft, airy notes and fiercely powerful ones. Next, they transitioned to some newer material, playing “Whiplash,” the title track of their new album releasing October 18. Bôa’s genre-crossing style came into play, too: in addition to those grungier tracks like the unreleased “Strange Few,” Rodgers pulled out her acoustic guitar for some softer, more tender ballads like “A Girl,” “Drinking,” and “Beautiful & Broken.”
It’s hard to say that anything was a crowd-pleaser because everything seemed to be one, but “Passport” was certainly a highly anticipated song if the number of phones pulled out for recordings was anything to go by. The band followed it up with a few more tracks, “Get There,” “Elephant,” and “Worry,” before wrapping up the first set with a hypnotic rendition of “Fool.”
“Duvet,” their most popular track, still hadn’t been played at the end of the first set, which meant the audience broke into some of the loudest cheering I have ever heard, eager for an encore. It was an ear-ringing, chest-thumping, blood-rushing kind of loud (I had to plug my ears for a moment) until the band ran back on stage for an encore with just as much energy as they had delivered each song before—which is to say a lot! Bôa jumped into a performance of the atmospheric “Twilight,” off the album by the same name. But the encore wasn’t just about reliving old hits; bôa also played the single that brought them back together earlier this year: “Walk with Me,” further building the anticipation for their finale.
As Rodgers invited the audience to sing along, the familiar opening lines of “Duvet”—“And you don’t seem to understand / A shame you seemed an honest man”—rang out, and the room erupted. Phones lit up, ready to capture what felt like a full-circle moment for fans—the song being most people’s first foray into bôa’s music. Rodgers’s voice—and those of every audience member—brought the night to an emotional high, carrying the raw emotion and nostalgia that have come to define the song. As the night came to a close, the room buzzing with energy, there was a strong sense that, despite their nearly 20-year break, bôa’s impact had only deepened over the years.
