Social media—especially since the emergence of TikTok in 2016—has resurrected scores of old songs and genres, from shoegaze to slowcore to midwest emo. This phenomenon extends to London-based alt-rock band bôa, who released new album Whiplash in 2024 following the explosion of their now platinum-certified single ‘Duvet’ on TikTok in 2021, marking their first release in two decades. The band, formed in 1993, initially gained recognition through the single in 1998, when it served as the opening song for the Japanese anime series Serial Experiments Lain. Releasing one more studio album, Get There, in 2005, the band went on hiatus until reconvening in its most recent configuration, which included Jasmine Rodgers (sister of the original guitarist Steve Rodgers) on vocals and guitar, Alex Caird on bass, and Lee Sullivan on drums. Touring consistently in the wake of their renewed success, bôa kicked off their 2025 UK tour in support of Whiplash at Manchester’s New Century Hall.
There was a mix of old and young faces in the crowd by the time opener Francis of Delirium strode onto stage at 8pm. The Luxembourgian singer, who has opened for the likes of The 1975 and Soccer Mommy in the past, released her debut album Lighthouse last year, and gave the audience a taste of her energetic indie rock in a medley of flavors during the half-hour opening set. “Is anyone here tonight in love?” she coaxed the crowd shyly before kicking off with the soft, boygenius-esque melodies of ‘Blue Tuesday’ and ‘Real Love’. These were followed by the harder-hitting rock sound of 2022 EP title track ‘The Funhouse’, which saw the audience clapping along despite its moody lyrics drawing on imagery of the crucifixion. Rather than being jarring, the country twang on ‘First Touch’, the second single on Lighthouse, kept the set dynamic and memorable, leaving the audience perfectly primed for bôa as the band made their long-awaited entrance at exactly 9pm.
bôa, joined onstage by supporting guitarist Carlos Garcia and multi-instrumentalist Harry Fausing Smith, began their set with the opening track of their seminal debut album Twilight to deafening cheers from the crowd. This was followed by the title track of their new album, ‘Whiplash’, throughout which Rodgers’ excitement was palpable as she shook a tambourine despite its pining lyrics: “Sometimes it hurts, take me as I am / Sometimes it hurts, take me as I bleed”. Transitioning to the smoother, jazzier halftime groove of ‘For Jasmine’, the third track of the set saw the debut of Smith’s violin on stage, which would add a particularly charming quality to Rodgers’ breathy vocals throughout the night.
The middle section of the set was dominated by songs from the new album, starting off with ‘Frozen’ and interspersed by Get There’s ‘A Girl’, before launching into the eerie violin intro to ‘Strange Few’. Bridging the lilting vocals of their standout debut and the more mature themes of their resurgent sound, which bôa have characterized as influenced by the “breakups, breakdown, and divorces” of the intervening 19 years, ‘Beautiful & Broken’ gave the audience a taste of the more classic rock direction that Whiplash takes sonically. These themes and flourishes were continued with ‘Seafarer’, a wistful alt-rock ballad lamenting the end of a relationship.
Throughout the night, the band’s elation to be onstage again shone through their performance, and Rodgers’ joy was especially infectious as her messy up-do came cascading around her shoulders during one particularly emotive riff. Nor did she appear shaken when a technical challenge delayed the start of a track, instead thanking the crowd while it in turn took up a chant in support of the sound technician as he fiddled with her telecaster onstage. Undisturbed by this interlude, Twilight hit ‘Drinking’ launched straight into a singalong as audience members young and old belted out familiar lyrics.
Following a somewhat lyrically simplistic yet cathartic double feature of Get There’s ‘Angry’ and Whiplash’s ‘Worry’, Rodgers thanked the fans once again for their support and shouted out the new album before launching into longtime fan-favorites ‘Elephant’ and ‘Fool’ to close their main set. Any difficulties posed by the vocal gymnastics of the tracks were overshadowed by the crowd’s enthusiastic participation in a call-and-response led by Rodgers, and the rhythmic jumping and clapping which crescendoed towards the end of the set. Despite the roaring success of the main set, the conspicuous absence of some of the band’s most beloved tracks made it welcome but not entirely surprising when, following bellowing cheers for “one more song”, the band walked back onstage to finish off the night with debut title track ‘Twilight’, Whiplash lead single ‘Walk with Me’, and finally the long-awaited ‘Duvet’.
While bôa’s Indian summer may have bloomed from the mysterious and oft-derided pasture of the TikTok algorithm, the band is far from being one-dimensional; that much is proven by the intergenerational impact of their music. Moreover, if one thing became clear throughout the night, it was that their audience isn’t either. Though the show wasn’t sold out, it seemed clear merely from the volume of the cheers and the crowd’s encyclopedic familiarity with lyrics from albums both old and new that those who did attend were committed fans. In an age where tastes and trends are increasingly determined by algorithms, it’s refreshing to be reminded that, once in a while, the result can be such a net positive.
