SHOW REVIEW: bar italia @ The Fonda
bar italia
London-based bar Italia headlined a sold-out show at Hollywood’s Fonda Theatre on Thursday, April 18. Four years out from their enigmatic origins in Dean Blunt’s record label World Music, bar italia electrified Thursday evening on Hollywood Boulevard.
Consisting of vocalist Nina Cristante along with guitarists Jezmi Fehmi and Sam Fenton, bar italia gained notoriety for the mystery surrounding their work. In order to keep the focus on their music, the band members turned down interviews, refused to show their faces, and even kept their names secret. Now with two EPs and four albums under their belt – and a migration to indie-darling label Matador with the release of 2023’s Tracey Denim and The Twits – listeners have gotten familiar with the musicians and artistry behind bar italia. And after witnessing Thursday’s show, it is obvious that audiences crave more.
I didn’t expect for the supposed coolest-band-in-the-world to walk onstage to a Crazy Frog song. The Fonda’s crowd erupted in an amalgamation of cheers and laughter as bar italia made their entrance to the Crazy Frog cover of “Axel F.” As I associate this sonic masterpiece more with going down a YouTube rabbit hole as a kid on the family computer than with British alt-rock, I found myself grinning as the band began playing. Though technical difficulties riddled the beginning of bar italia’s set, the group delivered an electrifying performance that seamlessly hybridized the melancholy with the energetic. So British.
While typically recognized as a trio, bar italia performs live as a quintet. The addition of a bassist and drummer made the band’s 17 song set more tangible; strong basslines and steady percussion played the perfect foil to the core trio’s blaring guitars and crooning vocals. Though English accents are often erased when musicians sing, I could tell that bar italia ventured across the pond to perform in LA. I even heard a few audience members joke about the “British jumpscare,” that occurred after the band opened with the song “Friends.”
I was fascinated by the ways bar italia tailored their discography for a live audience. For me, a highlight of the night was the band’s performance of “rage quit,” a 49 second song off of their sophomore record, bedhead. Hearing bar italia play an extended version of the short track felt a lot like the way I listen to the song on loop walking around campus, but this time I was avoiding collisions with Silver Lake men instead of electric scooters.
It was enthralling to witness Cristante, Fehmi, and Fenton each vacillate in and out of lead vocalist. The trio’s chemistry is impeccable, the result of almost five years playing together. Other than thanking the crowd between songs, the band kept audience interaction to a minimum. But maybe you don’t need to interact with your audience when your roaring guitar riffs are already doing so.
Closing their set with the song “worlds greatest emoter,” bar italia had their audience jumping up and down in their Doc Martens. After walking offstage, the LA crowd demanded an encore, revealing how although the enigma around bar italia has faded, listeners still can’t get enough. The band performed a three song encore, playing the songs “changer” and “Missus Morality” before closing with the track “skylinny.” Even with a drive to Indio scheduled the morning after, bar italia kept the energy in the Fonda high, inviting the audience to go all out as the time neared midnight.
For their alleged esotericism, bar italia is loud.
-DJ Y/N AKA Audrey Serrano