Lazy Sunday...?
Second of a series of posts from the 2024 Boia Festival in St Davids, Pembrokeshire. A brief reflection on the first two day - with more to come over the coming weeks.
I’m sitting here on Sunday morning sifting through my notes, photos and videos from the first two/three days of the marvellous Boia Festival in St Davids. There’s another full day to come, with treats like Rozi Plain and Lanterns On The Lake, and there’s little time to get everything together for a proper look back at the bands and conversations in the first few days.
Most of all, I’ve been awed by the breadth or talent in the UK music scene and beyond. There are so many artist producing so much amazing music. I’ve also been amazed and heartened by the way Steve Prior and his team have brought together a festival like this in such an out-of-the-way place. The smallest city - the CITY of St Davids as the crowd told The Zutons at their packed headline set last night.
If the Zutons were the biggest name to play so far, they were in great company. As I say, I have some sifting to do to pull out the gems and do some digging into the amazing music that is bubbling under the half hour sets from all these great musicians.
Here, I’m going for two to keep you going:
Rona Mac
First, is Rona Mac. I’m hopefully going to have a conversation with Rona in the coming weeks for a full feature, but I’ve watched her twice over the festival so far; once at the Tabernacle - the main acoustic and solo venue, and second in Grain, the pizza tent in the middle of the city.
Rona is a lovely person and a great musician. Her voice is like nothing you’ve heard, as she melds her songs of sea and sorrow with samples, loops and her own sparse, accomplished guitar playing. Live, she is a joy and she was clearly really happy to back in her home town after being on the road for 3 weeks (which felt like 6 months, she said), touring her new album, Honeymilk and Heavy Weather. It’s a beautiful and uncompromising record, and the songwriting is exceptional. I’ve seen Rona before - she did a wonderful set two years ago at the same festival - and I think this is the best thing she’s done.
Here’s Rona at the Tabernacle playing the excellent Darling from her new album. This track is one of my favourites already and the original recording has a lot of field recording sounds on it, so I’ve linked to it as a bonus below:1
Bodega
Second, a new band to me, headlining on Friday. New York hardcore punk outfit, Bodega, were seriously impressive and had the crowd going despite, as their lead singer pointed out, hardly any of us knowing their tunes! A couple of friends, Charlie and Monica (who run the Nourish Popty bakery in Fishguard) were about the only knowledgeable fans in the room to that point! That didn’t matter. The energy was amazing and the roof of the City Hall nearly came off. They left St David’s with a host of new admirers
Their new album, Our Brand Could Be Yr Life, is great too – find it on their website at https://www.bodega-band.com or their Bandcamp:
Above is a snatch from their live performance at the City Hall on Friday 25th October, 2024.
More bands, links and deep dives from the Boia Festival next week….
Bonuses
Darling is probably my favourite song by anyone at the moment. I videoed Rona singing it at the Tabernacle on Friday (see above), and heard it again when she did a second set on Saturday at Grain in St Davids. It makes me cry a little too, cos it reminds me a bit of my Dad who died a month ago… seafaring man that he was. The foghorn at the end evokes so much for this South Shields boy…