“Tonight you are in the Bodega.” It’s a nice thought, as I bet it would be easier to get a drink in the Bodega. The truth is, as much as the band would like us to believe otherwise, we are in Room 2 – an atmospheric venue where the crowd has taken a lawless approach to queuing. An approach befitting the enigmatic style of the headline act.

The evening kicks off with excitable support act Gift, a band proposing the idea that one guitarist is simply not as good as three. To their credit, they may be right; their large numbers take over the room with hefty volume and glorious enthusiasm, which is a nice distraction from the irritation building around the bar. The music is something akin to the opening credits of an anime TV show, a rather unusual start in complete juxtaposition to BODEGA, but given the band’s unsettled approach to genre, this works in their favour.

BODEGA comes on with an irrefutable New York confidence and a polished dishevelment that leaves you questioning if you’re at a concert or a hipster poetry reading. Lead singer Nikki Belfiglio does her best to ensure you’re never quite sure of the answer. She spends most of the evening apathetically banging a drum while singing with the enthusiasm of a child forced into the school choir. Occasionally she switches it up, instead hitting slightly less enthusiastically on her tambourine, or wildly dancing around the stage like an octopus suffering from delirium.

The performance often drifts into amateur theatre with loaded voiceovers, unusual backdrops, and political commentary. The band is dedicated to the act, playing their roles to a tee, and violently bashing out every song with non-stop energy. A feat made more impressive by the fact that the songs are excruciatingly long, with each one seemingly getting longer as the set list wears on. While the songs are initially engaging, the length and constant flux in style make it hard to stop your mind from drifting away from time to time. You might even find yourself more engaged with people writing mental reviews of the man getting a kick out of not-so-discreetly slapping stickers on the walls (5 stars), or the dreadful dancing of the girl who skipped you in the queue to the bar (0 stars).

BODEGA is a band designed to polarise opinion. For some they will be exciting, deep, and unusual; for others, they will be inconsistent, pretentious, and honestly a little dull. As you would hope, the overall opinion of those who came to the concert seems to sway heavily towards the former, as the hardcore fans spend the majority of the evening on invisible pogo sticks, and even the less enthusiastic amongst us still find our heads bobbing from time to time. As the band continues to increase their platform, it will be interesting to see where the mainstream opinion falls. Whatever way it goes, I don’t think anyone could deny that at the very least, BODEGA is fun to talk about.