While looking for somewhere to chat with Anna Erhard before her show at The Bodega, she tells me that she hasn’t played the guitar since the last time she toured the UK. That tour was five months ago. Tonight she plays guitar to a packed out Bodega with such virtuosity you'd be forgiven for presuming she had never once put it down.
Born in Switzerland, Erhard made the move to Berlin to escape the confines of the Swiss-German niche and is now touring her third studio album Botanical Gardens. She mixes lively drums with plucky indie riffs, but the most striking element of her sound is her lyrical form, which recounts unremarkable everyday events with very little irony.
170, a crowd-favourite track, tells of a grating argument she had while travelling with a friend about who’s taller (true story). The album’s title track speaks of depressed-looking peacocks and dry plants observed during a disappointing day out. Is she saying something about the mundane drag of life? The cheery alt-pop beats suggest not. Her song Not Rick makes it clear she has no interest in any claim at enlightenment: It refers to Rick Rubin and his “quotable short sentences of great universal beauty”.
I ask, "Have you read his book?"
"No."
The gig kicks into life with Erhard at the head of a bubbly three-piece. A drummer and bassist
accompany; they bounce along to the intricate rhythms their instruments create; all smiles and winks. Smiling too is Erhard, who playfully smashes out technical lead guitar parts alongside her vocals. It’s clear that during her five-month hiatus she hasn’t neglected to hone her talent.
She begins with the two title tracks from her previous albums, Short Cut and Campsite. The latter is the epitome of her obsessive domesticity. Every line is delivered bluntly, like a pun whose punchline is the rhyme. I expect it to get old. It doesn’t.
“I want to wake up to the sound of flip flops / I want to speak French at the gift shop... At one of the few beaches with real sand,” she sings.
Erhard's dryness echoes Knopfler, almost spoken. Somehow she captivates us. Her sung tunes are but a sigh toward the melodic and still we are hanging on every note, eager for more of her comedy. Not because it’s funny but because it’s quietly clever.
Erhard disarms a room full of adults with lines like “Went to the spa / with my Ma / forgot my swimsuit, had to wear my bra”. At the Bodega this sublunary monotony pierces any bubbles of pretension. It’s like Erhard is quietly railing at complexity. But really we know she’s just singing songs, and we take her unseriousness seriously, as though her musicianship has earned her the right to say whatever she wants.
“I met this family / and they were super hot”. We can only nod in laughing agreement.
I ask Erhard what her musical inspirations were growing up.
“In Switzerland we were really isolated... the radio was really s**t. I basically listened to children’s songs until I was 14.”
Perhaps this is what underlies an adversity to ideological depth. And yet for all the unseriousness, Erhard’s lyrical skill still gives us some snapshot flash-in-the-pan poeticism.
The melancholic This Is It employs her characteristic domesticity to recount a break-up: “The door frames you so well.” It’s a well-composed line, and I wonder if her Germanic Swissness allows her to hear and approach English differently.
“Sometimes it’s an advantage [if] it’s not your mother tongue... things just come to my mind that are very obvious, somebody else might want to elaborate it a bit more but I’m like... nah.”
While her vocal and lyrical delivery is deliberate and intentional, away from the mic is another story. With each instrumental moment Erhard and her crew break out into smirking mischievous looks, treating their audience to the kind of refined musicianship which must be sought out to be found. Note especially the perfect rolling sluggishness of BMG Academy and the mind-bending tempo changes of Horoscopes. Teeth on the King betrays Erhard’s interest and capability with synthetic manipulation - a scene she says is (and always has been) thriving in Berlin.
When I ask her how she is finding Berlin, the conversation turns quickly to her love of British sub-scenes. She gives a particular nod to Bristol- and Nottingham-based Dot-to-Dot Festival where she says she loved playing in 2024, and also notably enjoyed seeing noise-rock band YHWH Nailgun, who performed after her.
“Here we have a bigger audience than at home.” She is certainly well received tonight.
As the night progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Erhard is interested only in a good time. Smiles become grins and an audience, familiar now with the truly unserious agenda, have relaxed into the trio’s capable hands.
In August, Erhard returns to the UK to play End of the Road festival in Dorset alongside names such as Father John Misty and Self Esteem. You can be sure her sound will find some friends around the sun-soaked festival scene.
Anna Erhard performed at The Bodega on 10th March 2025, with support from NYSSA (see photo gallery below)
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
