When Aiden Bonilla first started listening to punk rock in 2020, it was the sounds of Japanese groups like Going Steady and Four Tomorrow that that made him fall in love with the genre.
Five years later, Bonilla is now the frontman of Storrs-based indie punk band Overlöded and recently returned from studying abroad at Sophia University in Tokyo, where he played a series of shows in East Asia.
The first show he booked came after a group of fans messaged him on TikTok about potentially coming to South Korea to play a show. Bonilla made them a deal: if they could find a venue and get ten people to show up, he would play the show.
This online interaction led to Bonilla performing a solo acoustic show on May 24 at Studio Sanbo in Seoul. Though there were only a dozen people there, those who showed up knew all the words and had a clear appreciation for the music.
In Tokyo, Bonilla played a series of shows with Sentimental Okada, who had previously collaborated with him on Overlöded songs like “No Music No Life” from 2022’s “Love and Youth.” The two started jamming together when Bonilla got to Japan, during which Okada offered to have Bonilla join him during solo shows he had booked, an opportunity that Bonilla jumped at.
The two played five shows together in Tokyo, playing sets mainly featuring Overlöded songs. Bonilla noted that he enjoyed taking his songs — many of which are electric guitar-dominated and fast-paced — and adapting them to stripped-down arrangements with piano and acoustic guitar.
Among the songs that worked best in this format was “Let’s Commit Insurance Fraud Together” from the group’s 2025 album “Miss President.” Okada recorded a piano part for the track as a background part for the song’s slower middle section that took on a new role live.
“When we made that song originally, I really wanted piano on it,” said Bonilla. “I just gave him the song and recorded it with this awesome, sprawling piano arrangement on it. And when it just just guitar and piano, that took the main focus and completely changed the song.”
Though he enjoyed the acoustic shows, the highlight of his time studying abroad came when he did two shows with a full band. The first of these shows came about when he messaged Kerosene, a friend of his from the Philippines, about doing an acoustic show there. To his surprise, she suggested doing a full band show and organized a drummer, bassist and guitarist to create a one-night-only lineup.
On July 6, Bonilla flew to the Philippines, rehearsed with the group quickly and then took the stage at Mow’s Bar in Manilla. The lineup was a seamless fit, with Bonilla calling them “some of the most talented musicians I’ve ever played with.”
The show was a hit, with the quartet delivering an energetic performance to a crowd that rivals those Bonilla has played at stateside.
“Surprisingly, more people at that show knew the words to Overlöded songs than any show I’ve ever played at, even in Connecticut,” he said. “And it’s a super validating feeling that all these people who really care about the music came all this way to see it.”
After the success of the first show, Bonilla played two full band shows in Tokyo with another lineup. At this point, he had been travelling with the band Four Tomorrow after he was invited to join them at a show he saw. This led to the band inviting Bonilla and the Tokyo lineup to join them on the bill on Aug. 2, which was the last show Bonilla played before heading home. He called this show “the culmination of everything that had happened over the summer, all the people that I met and everything I wanted to do.”
Now that he’s back in Connecticut and getting ready for Overlöded’s fall schedule, Bonilla said he hopes to incorporate some new elements into the band’s set such as quick song transitions and gang vocals, which he noticed Japanese bands did very successfully.
Reflecting on his time abroad, Bonilla expressed his gratitude that he got to play shows there, completing an arc that goes back to 2020.
“I got into punk rock with Japanese punk, I had never really listened to punk until discovering Going Steady in 2020,” he said. “So, five years later, going to the city that the band came from and seeing the music scene that inspired me to play punk music of my own was really full circle.”