bôa at First Avenue (May 13, 2025)

bôa Setlist

Deeply
Whiplash
For Jasmine
Frozen
A Girl
Strange Few (Violin intro)
Beautiful & Broken
Seafarer
Welcome
Drinking
Elephant
Angry
Worry
Fool
— Encore —
Twilight
Walk With Me
Duvet

Dream, Ivory Setlist

Bullet Train
Wedding Crasher
I’m So Emo
Scorpion
Would It Kill You At All
Welcome and Goodbye
Solar Eclipse

Tour Dates

June 10 – New Century Hall – Manchester, U.K.
June 11 – Newcastle University – Newcastle, U.K.
June 12 – Queens Hall – Edinburgh, U.K.
June 14 – National Stadium – Dublin, U.K.
June 16 – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham, U.K.
June 17 – Stylus – Leeds, U.K.
June 19 – SWX – Bristol, U.K.
June 20 – Tramshed – Cardiff, U.K.
June 21 – 02 Forum – London, U.K.
July 31 – Aug 3 – Lollapalooza – Chicago, IL
July 25 – Latitude Festival, Suffolk, UK.

First Avenue played host to bôa and Dream, Ivory for the final show of their Whiplash tour, which consisted of 13 shows throughout the East Coast and Midwest. It’s been a busy year for bôa, with a nine-show European (Is Istanbul Europe? I guess it depends on who you ask?) tour preceding their US tour. Dream, Ivory joined the tour for ten shows starting in Orlando. bôa released their third (or 6^th depending on whether you consider Istanbul to be in Europe or not, no just kidding, depending on your definition of release – check out their Wikipedia page) album, Whiplash, in October of 2024 while Dream, Ivory announced that their next album “When You Come Back I Have So Much To Tell You” will drop in July.

Dream, Ivory got the show started with “Bullet Train”, a single from their upcoming album. I was amazed to learn after the set that playing guitar and bass live is relatively new to the brothers (Christian and Louie Baello) who prefer to experiment on synthesizers and computers. The sense Christian conveyed, is that creating music and playing music are distinct for them. On the advice of their manager, they added a drummer (Daniel Vanchieri) for their live performances, which is part of the “leveling up” process that the brothers are aspiring for. Based on this show, it’s paying off; Daniel’s addition lends a fullness to the band’s live sound. The band played to a large and appreciative audience with many singing along. Even with slower songs like “Wedding Crasher”, “I’m So Emo” and “Scorpion” the crowd was very engaged. “Would It Kill You At All” brought the tempo up a smidge and “Welcome and Goodbye”, their biggest hit to-date was played with particular intensity and met with joy from the audience. The set ended with “Solar Eclipse”. It was fun to watch the fans interacting with Christian after the show. I heard more than one express words to the effect of “your music changed my life”. The whole experience has me rooting for them to make it big.

After about 30 minutes, bôa took the stage and put on a show! Jasmine Rodgers has a strong, confident voice. In my experience you never know what you’re going to get when you hear a voice live for the first time, Jasmine does not disappoint. Their setlist stayed true to their previous US shows, full of crowd favorites and a mix of old and new. If you’re not familiar with the band’s backstory, it’s worth a few minutes on Wikipedia familiarizing yourself. The three current members of bôa are Jasmine, Alex Caird, and Lee Sulivan; however, only Jasmine of that trio was present. She was accompanied by a backing band consisting of Robin Diaz (drums), Harry Smith (multi-instrumentalist), Carlos Garcia (guitar), and Josh Morrow (base; I’m not 100% of Josh’s last name). Being new to bôa, I enjoyed their show, which was made all the better by the adoration of their very young audience. Despite being a band that dates back to the ‘90s, bôa’s audience seemed to be comprised of mostly early twenty-somethings and younger. One lucky 17-year-old got to see the 18+ show because her mom accompanied her. Jamine alternated between dancing around the stage and playing guitar and was quite good at engaging the crowd, sensing when they would respond to her call and going for it. “Drinking”, the 10^th song they played, had everyone whipping out their phones, turning on the flashlight, and waving them about like they were trying to coax John Lennon onto stage (Google it). It wasn’t until the second to last song before the encore, that we got a little chit chat with the audience with Jasmine thanking Dream, Ivory, acknowledging that it was their last show of the tour, introducing the band and thanking First Avenue. She confessed that she was particularly excited because of the tie to Prince and that she’s a HUGE fan. Twice she sang a line from a Prince song and implored the audience to finish the line. Twice she was met with silence. She handled it was humor and aplomb; it was endearing. Despite being the home of Prince, this just wasn’t a Prince crowd, I guess. There was a 3-song encore, which ended with the song everyone had been waiting for them to play, “Duvet” – a hit from their 1998 album The Race of a Thousand Camels, which was re-released as Twilight in the US in 2001.

I am a fan of British pop, especially when fronted by a female, so I don’t know how I’ve missed bôa all of these years, but now that we’ve met, they will be in heavy rotation on my playlist. Seeing these two bands play together with their fans so engaged and invested in the show was a great way to become familiar with them. If you have the chance to see either of them in the future, take it.