Yes, that’s right kiddies, Punk As Folk is back for a third year at a third venue. The first year was a four day event at our beloved Funhouse, which saw the last performance of God’sFavorite Beefcake and performances by some of the top names in punk-inspired folk music from around the world. Last year, we sold out The Comet (again, RIP. We know it’s back but, you know, not really) with blazing sets by Blackbird Raum, Sourmash Hug Band and others.

This year, we play a new venue, Conor Byrne’s in Ballard on Friday, May 23, with all the artists hailing from the Pacific Northwest: Strangely from Bellingham, The Mongrel Jews (back for their third year!) from Seattle, Future Fridays from Seattle,Lone Madrone from Portland, Danbert Nobacon from Twisp (by way of Leeds, England) and of course, South Seattle’s own Bad Things closing out the night.

I gotta say, I like the way each of these band’s incorporate punk influences into their acoustic-based music and I think this is going to be the most musically diverse lineup yet. For us, diversity was always what defined the early punk scene….not so much mohawks, leather jackets and fast songs. Just look at the difference between Crass and the Buzzcocks, or Suicide and The Cramps. But, then again, I guess this proves that we’re old and hail from a bygone era.

Capacity is much more limited this year and we are not selling advanced tickets so get there early. Music starts at 9pm. And, if you’re busking at Folklife that day and want to continue the party, come down and busk out front. Seems like that’s happened every year so far and we like this trend.

Then, on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, we’ll be hitting the NW Folklife Festival once again. There’s talk of us doing some busking on Monday before our performance for old time’s sake, so look for us around Seattle Center. We’ll take the Vera Stage at 3pm. Come out and say hi and be sure to check out all our other friends that are playing the festival throughout the weekend, including Bad Things’ bass slapper Mad Wilcox’s other band Bakelite 78 (Saturday) and Bad Things’ banjo player’s indie/psych band Low Hums (Sunday).

As for the rest of the summer, we’ll be finishing up our new record in preparation for our CD release in September. More on that later. We’ll also be playing around town this summer: Columbia City Beatwalk and The Tractor Tavern (with Lynval Golding of The Specials and Martin Atkins of PiL, Ministry, Pigface fame!) in July and Big Al Brewing’s big anniversary party in August.

Come out and say hi next weekend at Folklife and stay tuned for our summer schedule as we finalize all the details.

cheers,
The Bad Things