Hey Bad Things Fans!
We’re trying to fine tune our booking and touring in preparation for 2015 and were wondering if any of you would mind answering this quick six question survey? It will take you two minutes, is confidential and will help us out a lot. Thanks so much in advance.
This Sunday, the Bad Things Cabaret Quartet will be gracing the stage of the Can Can for the first time in over three years.
Has it really been that long?
We’ll be opening a night of burlesque, cabaret and sideshow antics with New Orleans’ Freaksheaux to Geaux alongside many of our hometown collaborators. This will be a uniting of freaks from the Big Easy and the Emerald City. Shit’s bound to get weird.
We’ll be opening our set with our version of this Tiger Lillies classic:
As many of you know, the Lillies were one of our earliest influences. One of our most treasured memories is performing this song for the Tiger Lillies themselves at the Can Can after their show at the Moore Theater. Must have been five years ago at least. Now, we return to the scene of the crime.
Come out to the Can Can and re-visit The Bad Things’ cabaret roots in one of the rooms that helped define us. Tickets are available here. Get them quick as I know VIP tickets are sold out.
Our next full band show will be on Sunday, July 13th at Stanislav the Gypsy’s bar Lottie’s Lounge, but more on that later.
We’ll also be sharing information on our upcoming CD release events in September. We got two Seattle shows planned and some regional dates in Washington and Oregon. The official release date is September 16. First album in six years people! Be excited because this is our best one yet.
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
Seems like this band has played too many memorials in the last two years.
It was at the memorial for the Cafe Racer shootings at The Neptune Theater that Daniel Adam Driskill told me he’d been diagnosed with brain cancer. It seemed like somehow, this special little community we’d built was disappearing around us that night, for all the wrong reasons. Ironically, this was happening on a night when so many of those bands in that community were playing to probably the biggest audience they’d ever played to.
The thought of Daniel not being in the front row of Bad Things shows, closing his eyes, bobbing his head, holding his beer to his chest, looking content and totally wrapped up in our songs, that’s the ultimate compliment you can pay to a musician, just listening and appreciating what you do. And Daniel gave that to us every time, for years, pretty much from the beginning. He made us feel special and for that, we all had a special place in our hearts for the guy. Reading the posts on his Facebook page, I see he had that effect on a lot of people and definitely with a lot of other bands. A true fan of the music. Tried and true.
Tomorrow, we will get together at The Highline on Capitol HIll with an army of fellow musicians and friends and family to remember this gem of a man. Folks like Bakelite 78, Bucharest Drinking Team, Chaotic Noise Marching Corps, Mongrel Annie, Melissa Cerise, Diva Le Deviant and more will be providing entertainment. Sure to be a big night of music, tears, memories, smiles, more tears, more beers and drunken singalongs….something Daniel loved. It’ll be strange not to see him swaying arm and arm with the drunks during “Death of the Inferno” but, you know what? I’m betting he’ll be there all the same. He wouldn’t miss it.
Love you buddy and we’ll see you on the other side.
P.S. If you’re coming to the show tomorrow, bring cash. His family and loved ones were left with some stiff hospital bills and expenses that need to be taken care of. All proceeds of the door are going to the cause but bring extra so that Daniel’s loved ones can focus on their grieving.
Daniel Adam Driskill in all his glory! Friday, January 13, 2012 at The Comet Tavern. Photo by Jon Roy.
We had a great time last Saturday at the Columbia City Theater for a show supporting Northern California’s amazing El Radio Fantastique and our buddy, Baby Gramps. Hadn’t been on the Columbia City stage in quite a while and boy, it felt like home. Miss playing that place. Look for more shows there in the future.
Photographer Keith Johnson was in the house and he took some great pictures. Check ’em out.
Thanks to everyone that came out to Conor Byrne’s last Thursday. We had a great time. Gold Hope Duo were great. Gramps was his usual amazing self and we did what we do to a happy, dancing Ballard audience.
Now that the first leg of our North to South Seattle Tour is complete, time to start preparing for our next couple appearances in town. First of all, we’ll be headlining an amazing bill at Lo-Fi Performance Gallery in Eastlake on Friday, March 28 with our old buddies The Dolomites. The Dolomites and The Bad Things go back into the Midnite Choir days, when we were just two of maybe four bands that were doing this kind of music in the Pacific Northwest. After travels to Japan, Europe and Mexico City, Stevhen Iancu, essentially the only consistent member of the band, is back to rock out on his accordion with us and Wenatchee’s Jipsea Party, who we have not seen yet but are confident will start things off in a most raucous way.
After that, we’ll be hitting Columbia City with Northern California’s amazing El Radio Fantastique on Saturday, April 5th. But, more on that later.
Get advanced tickets to the Lo-Fi show here and be sure to pick the Artist Ticket option as it benefits Cafe Racer Love and gets you a very cool collectible ticket, all for a mere $0.25 extra.
A great little lineup featuring our buddy, the legendary Baby Gramps, The Gold Hope Duo out of Kingston, New York, a high-octane folkabilly swing and The Bad Things closing out the night with our trademark arsenal of drinking songs and wounded waltzes. What else you gonna do on a Thursday night Ballard? Start the weekend early.
Show starts at 8:30 with Baby Gramps so get there early!
The Bad Things
The Gold Hope Duo
and Baby Gramps
Thursday, March 13, 2014
at Conor Byrne Pub – 5140 Ballard Ave. NW
Doors at 7pm. Music at 8:30pm.
Cover is $10. 21 and over with ID.
Years ago, in the late 90s and early oughts, Jimmy the Pickpocket and Mad Wilcox were in a band called A Midnite Choir. Back then, long before bands like Gogol Bordello and Devotchka brought “gypsy punk” to the masses, there were only a small handful of bands in the Pacific Northwest that shared a love of accordions, banjos, drinking and songs about bad behavior. Here in Seattle, the Choir, Circus Contraption and bands like Black Cat Orchestra were representing. Down south in Portland, there was The Dolomites led by eccentric accordionist Stevhen Iancu.
Stevhen would sit on a toilet while playing accordion and would also deep fry food inside a garbage can on stage much to the delight, or sometimes disgust, of the front row. One memory that always sticks out is a bill we shared with them at Satyricon in Portland with Reverend Glasseye. Stevhen also enjoyed breathing fire and when the club cut The Dolomite’s sound and then refused to pay them, Stevhen poured lighter fluid on the bar and proceeded to light the bar on fire, resulting in 2 foot flames and a very surprised bartender, who promptly handed over the cash. Ah, the good ‘ol days!
Hey all you artistic Bad Things fans out there,
We know we’ve been teasing this new record for going on two years now but the release day is fast approaching! It’s going into the final mixing and mastering sessions next month and it’s time for us to start planning the artwork.
For this release, since we’re releasing it on vinyl, the artwork is going to be very important. So, we’ve decided to source artwork from our talented fans. We just have a feeling that you all can come up with something that we wouldn’t have even thought of.
We are asking artists who are interested to send us their e-mail addresses. At some point during this next week, we’ll send out a general e-mail to everyone that submitted information on the album title and the basic concept of the record and from there, it’s all you. Submit a sketch and If we like your artwork and/or idea, you’ll be hired for the gig once we negotiate fair compensation. If you’re a fan and an artist, this is your chance to immortalize your work FOREVER on, what we feel, is our finest release to date.
Interested artists can e-mail us here or private message us on Twitter or Facebook.
Just got word last night that we will be in fact sharing the stage with none other than the legendary X and the equally legendary Blasters on Friday, December 20th at El Corazon!!
These band’s mixture of roots music and punk rock were a major influence on us as a band and as music fans and this is such an amazing opportunity. Get tickets now’ cause this most definitely will sell out.
The Bad Things 