Vandoliers live at The Bodega
Schedule
Tue Jul 07 2026 at 07:00 pm to 11:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
The Bodega | Nottingham, EN
DHP Family proudly presents...Vandoliers
+ Supports TBC
Live at The Bodega
Tuesday 7 July 2026
14+
Tickets on sale now: http://alt.tkts.me/tl/il1j
In 2023, when Vandoliers frontwoman Jenni (Gin-ee) Rose was barely six months sober, the Vandoliers were scheduled to play a show in Maryville, TN on the same day that the state's governor signed a "drag ban" bill. Bandmate Cory Graves suggested the band wear dresses on stage in protest and auction them off to benefit LGBTQ+ causes. Photos from the show went viral, generating coverage everywhere from Rolling Stone to a segment on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, but for Jenni it was a public moment that would change everything.
"That was the first time I had ever worn a dress in public, but not the first time I had worn a dress—and then the entire planet saw it," she says. "The wall that I had keeping this side of me invisible was completely shattered. I wrote down in my journal, 'Fuck, I think I'm trans.'"
Rose spent months grappling with that realization, all the while putting together the songs for the next Vandoliers album and continuing the band's dizzying touring schedule. It wasn't until the band entered the studio with Grammy-winning producer Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem, Flogging Molly, Lucero), that Rose realized she had actually been writing about the experience of dysphoria.
Whittled down from 40 songs to 10 of the most vulnerable and carefully honed tracks,Life Behind Bars may feel a little more stripped and intimate than the band's typical raucous fare, but the album is still chock-full of upbeat and sing-a-long-ready Vandoliers classics. Even the most melancholy Vandoliers song has a degree of exuberance and verve, full of anirrepressible energy that has led them to tour with everyone from Flogging Molly to the Turnpike Troubadours, to fellow Dallas-Fort Worth natives the Old 97s.
These are the songs of a fearless band hell-bent on spreading joy wherever they go, a band who has made a career of pushing boundaries and taking all-comers, of making a bigger, brighter, bolder tent in a musical space that is still too often hidebound by tradition."We've been breaking rules in country for 10 years," says Rose. "'You play too fast.' 'You're too loud.' 'You sing too high.' 'You're more of a punk band.'
All that matters, though, is that people hear our songs and they help them in any way—that's all we can hope for. I'm struggling so much on this record, but I hope that another trans girl listens to it and finds something in it for themselves."
"Life Behind Bars" is out now, and Vandoliers will visit The Bodega on Tuesday 7th July.
Where is it happening?
The Bodega, 23 Pelham Street, Nottingham, NG1 2ED, United Kingdom
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