Hard to believe that it was a year ago that we played at The Funhouse with Professor Gall, Red Stitch Circus Phenomenon and God’s Favorite Beefcake, on what would be their last show. But, here we are again. Punk As Folk 2013!
The Funhouse is gone, our boys our gone but the music lives on. This year, I compressed the lineup to the cream of the crop from last year’s four day extravaganza. The legendary Blackbird Raum, our home town buddies The Mongrel Jews, San Francisco’s amazing Sour Mash Hug Band, our co-conspirator and folk punk legend Danbert Nobacon (who will also be acting as MC for the evening) and, closing out the night, your Bad Things. Also, a young lady named Porch Cat will be busking out front…who knows, we might even join her. Continue reading →
Yeah, that’s right! 11 years! Hard to believe, isn’t it? Well, here we are and we’re going to celebrate godammit!
We missed our 10th year anniversary last year as things just got too crazy after our practice space fire and the Cafe Racer shootings. I, honestly, didn’t even think about it until it had come and gone. So, why not an 11th year anniversary party? We always were a little “different” anyway.
The show is going to feature a whole slew of old friends and guest performers. Already slated to perform are opening bands Miss Mamie Lavona and her White Boy Band and Bakelite 78, both bands feature Bad Things members, are old friends and we can’t think of better openers. Armitage Shanks, our old compatriot from way back in the Midnite Choir days, will be hosting the show. The gals from Sinner/ Saint Burlesque will be performing throughout the night and guest performers include: former Bad Things MC/concertinist Danny Dead (!!), Danbert Nobacon, Melissa Cerise-Bullock (Bat Country), members of Orkestar Zirkonium and more.
And, in homage to the horrible tragedies of last year, we will be donating $1 of advanced ticket sales to the Victims of Cafe Racer Shootings Memorial Fund. Nancy, the organizer, told me that for the year anniversary of the shootings she hopes to transform the fund into a more general fund for all victims of violent crime and their families. Hopefully, we can help her get that started.
The shindig goes down on Thursday, June 27th at The Crocodile. You can get those advanced tickets here and I advise you do as this is sure to be a packed house.
One of the coolest thing about being in a band is meeting folks that are profoundly moved by your music. As a die-hard music fan, I know how the music that you love becomes the soundtrack to your life. So many of my memories are directly associated with songs. Whenever I hear those songs, it takes me right back to the emotional landscape of that moment more than any picture or video can.
Music can be life changing. Punk rock was the catalyst for me to reject the mainstream culture of my small town high school back in the mid-80s, despite knowing that doing so would pretty much guarantee that I would lose most of my friends, face retribution from metal heads and rednecks, bring my sexual orientation into question and instill distrust from authority figures who previously saw me as a “good” kid. But, I didn’t care! I knew that this was the greatest thing I’d ever discovered and I related to the anger and alienation that it represented. It was a way to say “I’m not like you” in a very public way and it shaped who I would be for the rest of my life.
When you realize that the music that you write and perform has become someone’s life soundtrack or affected their life in a profound way, it’s beyond an honor. Over the last ten years, we’ve had folks tell us that they got married to our music or met their current partner at one of our shows, that a certain song always takes them back to certain period of their life, that a song will always remind them of a lost friend, that their kid loves our music, that we inspired them to start a band or that their life was changed at one of our shows – sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. It’s for these people that we keep The Bad Things alive despite lives that get increasingly busy with the addition of kids, jobs, homes, marriages, etc. If we know our music is making an impact in at least one person’s life, then we’re obviously doing something right. Continue reading →
This Thursday we will party with the ghosts of our lost friends and shake the rafters with singing and celebration. You can read more about the event here and here’s a spot from last night’s news report at 6pm on KOMO TV featuring our own Jimmy the Pickpocket.
So, it’s been six months since the Cafe Racer shootings. Seems like a lifetime ago and yet again, it seems like yesterday. We are playing two shows in December to raise money for the families and lone survivor of the shootings. I think right now, more than ever, these folks need our help and it gives us the opportunity to remember our friends, honor their memory and have a good time drinking and singing!
The first of these events is the Tom Waits Tribute Night where we’ll be playing two Waits songs alongside a bevvy of musical homies. I think we go on around midnight but the whole night should be great and it all happens at Conor Byrnes on Friday, December 7.
I was just sitting here putting together the set list for Monday’s show with Firewater and thinking how lucky I am to share the stage with a major musical influence for the second time.
Back when I was in A Midnite Choir, there weren’t a lot of gypsy punk or klezmer punk or steampunk or punk cabaret or whatever-the-fuck-you-want-to-call-them bands. There was some interesting stuff coming out of Denver like 16 Horsepower, the Denver Gentlemen and Devotchka, some cool stuff from Boston, mainly Reverend Glasseye and his Wooden Legs, a few great bands out of the South like the Pine Hill Haints, the collection of weirdness that was starting to assemble in the Pacific Northwest….and, of course, New York had Firewater!
So, we’re heading into the last two weeks of our Fire Fundraising Campaign on IndieGoGo and we’re pretty far from our goal. We still have lots of equipment to replace and an upcoming release on the horizon so we still need all the help we can get. In an effort to encourage more folks to contribute we are offering a couple great incentives.
First one is for our fans and supporters in the great city of New Orleans. Our friends in Freaksheaux to Geaux, a musical, vaudevillian, circus, magic, burlesque show have offered to help out by offering guest list spots to any NOLA-based or NOLA bound Bad Things fan who contributes to the IndieGoGo campaign. All you have to do is e-mail freaksheaux@gmail.com after you contribute and they’ll add you to the list of the show of your choice. Their upcoming show on Friday, October 26th will feature Bad Things co-conspirator La Petite Mort and dear friend Eliza Rickman. Here’s their list of other Coming Attractions and below is a little taste of their incredible show.
For all you Seattle based fans, we are offering seriously discounted tickets to our Halloween show, the 9th Annual Cabaret Macabre for all IndieGoGo contributors. How that will work is, once you contribute to the campaign, we will send you a discount code that you will enter on the ticket page to reveal the secret discounted price. This is only available until September 26th, when the campaign ends so get yours today. You can pick up tickets right over here.
And, to everyone that’s contributed so far, we love you and can’t express our appreciation enough.
Thanks to Tony Fulgham of Jackrabbit for the amazing artwork for Friday night’s show at the High Dive. I know it’s been hot Seattle, but it’s about to get much hotter! RSVP here.
Usually we take the month of August off. In fact, in the past, we’ve taken most of the summer off, but this summer kicked off with a bang….in a bad way…and we found ourselves playing a ton in June, which led to us booking a show in July, which led to us booking two shows in August, so no rest for the wicked or the bad….things that is.
We played Big Al Brewing in White Center last year as part of their Summer Concert Series and had an absolute blast so we were honored to be asked back. We’ll be gracing their stage this Saturday, August 4th. It’s just us all night, or at least until 10pm with things kicking off around 6:30pm. Because they are technically a tasting room, they can have kids there and adults can drink as well so it’s a great deal for south end parents: free show, all-ages, adult beverages, surly drunks with accordions and banjos on stage, food carts and Zippy’s Burgers down the street. Plus, we’ve been known to bump our favorite 60s and 70s ska, rocksteady and reggae classics between sets so it’s a guaranteed good time. Hope to see you all there.
Now, I know a lot of you don’t live in the south end and adhere to a later schedule and are adverse to the presence of children. Don’t worry, we understand. That’s why we were excited to get added to this last minute bill with our good buddies from Portland, Sassparilla at the High Dive on Friday, August 17. This will be your more typical Bad Things gig with us headlining in the wee hours after way too many PBRs, Jim Beams on the rocks and…ahem…herbal performance enhancements. It’s always tough to follow Sassparilla because they put on a kick-ass show. Plus, opening the night will be the really high-quality twang of Jackrabbit, who we are new to but already big fans of. So, despite having to weave through the Friday night douchebags in Fremont to get to the High Dive, this is guaranteed to be a kick-ass night of amazing drinking music. Check out this video of Sassparilla busking at Folklife last year and you’ll get an idea of what I’m talking about.
Hard to believe that it was a year ago that we played at The Funhouse with Professor Gall, Red Stitch Circus Phenomenon and God’s Favorite Beefcake, on what would be their last show. But, here we are again. Punk As Folk 2013!
