Bar Italia made their highly anticipated return to NYC with a cigarette-tinged concert at Warsaw in Brooklyn on March 15. Touring with their new album, The Twits, and making their way across the US to their Coachella debut, the band gave one of their best performances to date. The band entered the stage cast in warm, low-key lighting to an ecstatic crowd and filled the room with guitar buzz and imagery-filled lyrics.
The British shoegaze/post-punk trio, signed to Matador Records, includes Sam Fenton and Jezmi Fehmi of Double Virgo and singer-songwriter Nina Cristante. They formed in 2020 to instant recognition but stayed away from the press until late last year, even keeping their names hidden from fans. This garnered them a mysterious image that they are now attempting to shed. They also added a new drummer, Liam Toon, just days before the show.
The band has garnered a strong following in New York after making two trips from the UK last year. For an international band of their size, they have made a particular effort to play in NYC, and it has paid off for them, as Friday’s show was more than packed with eager fans. Now they’re off to continue across the US, eventually making stops on the West Coast, including two days at Coachella.
Opening for them was Scarlet Rae, a Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter who did a great job of setting the tone for the show and got a lively reaction from the crowd.
It’s a feat how Bar Italia can get a crowd moving and cheering without almost any audience interaction. They uttered about 10 words between songs the entire show, but the audience was there for the music, and the music was electric. That’s not to say the band was closed off. They were full of smiles the whole night and didn’t hold back, showing a lot of emotion on stage.
The interaction between the trio’s vocals formed a texture that cannot be compared to any other act. Sam Fenton and Jezmi Fehmi’s distorted guitar riffs reverberated through the venue as they played “My Little Tony,” wallowing in their dramatic vocals before being lifted up by Nina Cristante and her tambourine in the chorus. The song’s lyrics connect deeply, focusing on imagery that conjures small, intimate scenes that convey displeasure for how our generation has learned to socialize.
They capped off the main set with “World’s Greatest Emoter,” a song title referencing an interview in which Liam Payne described actor Will Smith as the “world’s best emoter” after he slapped the comedian Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. The room was pounding with this song, and it only got more intense as they faked the audience out, ending the song multiple times, only to drop right back in seconds later at twice the volume. This was a highlight for the band’s new drummer, Liam Toon, whose skilled playing helped balance the song’s instrumentation with the song’s dense vocals and guitar.
The crowd was feverish by the time the band said thank you and walked off stage, only to walk back on moments later unceremoniously. The band capitalized on this, playing three of their most popular songs. They capped the concert off with “Skylinny,” which had the entire crowd of 1,100 people chanting, “Run-a-runaway, Run-a-runaway.”
This was the kind of concert that made you stop for a minute after to take in your surroundings and breathe. Hopefully, Coachella brings good things for Bar Italia because we are sure NY would be happy to welcome them back whenever they feel like hopping the pond again.
Bar Italia – Warsaw, Brooklyn – March 15, 2024
Setlist: Friends, my little tony, calm down with me, Real house vibes (desperate house vibes), twist, Jelsy, Brush w Faith, harpee, Nurse!, punkt, glory hunter, my kiss era, Polly Amour, worlds greatest emoter
Encore: Banks, changer, Skylinny
