Born in the shadows of the evergreens and the cornstalks. Born to howl sad songs at the stars to the wheeze of the blessed accordion. They call me The Pickpocket. Look for me by the train tracks. Cheers!
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!
The Bad Things have a show coming up on October 1st with the amazing band Firewater at the Crocodile. Don’t miss this show. These two bands couldn’t complement each other more, and the combined entertainment will prove a rare, and likely magical night. Tickets are $15 in advance, and available here.
I met with Jimmy “the Pickpocket” Berg, lead singer and accordion player for The Bad Things in Georgetown. I met him on his home turf to find out about how they are finding their way in the wake of two disasters. The Bad Things are post-apocalyptic depression era music. What they do crushes your heart and gives you a new one made out of whiskey. They’re high in the running for the most fun live show in Seattle any night they play. Though this past year has been fraught with tragedy, they are powering through with the help of the community. Continue reading →
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.
Thanks to our photographer friend Isaac Miranda for this truly chilling and moving slide show featuring the Bad Things’ classic “The Breaking.” Thanks man! We appreciate it.
Many of you know that back in May, The Bad Things lost their beloved practice space and a large amount of equipment and memorabilia to an overnight fire (see more here). Given all the recent tragedies that have struck our music scene here in Seattle, we have been slow at organizing a way to recoup some of our losses. But, today we are launching an Indie Go Go campaign to help us replace some of our lost equipment so that we can proceed with our plans to record our fourth album in the Fall.
The fundraiser features tons of great perks like a pre-released copy of the new album once it’s completed, merch, signed CDs, a night out with the band, a private show, and more. We are asking for only half of the dollar amount of what was lost since this should be enough for us to get back to business without spending the money that we’d set aside for the new release.
We’ll be running the campaign for the next couple months, so if you’re low on cash now, wait until you can comfortably contribute. If you have friends that love the band, let them know about the campaign. Spread the word, contribute, get some great stuff and know that you’re helping some folks through a very difficult time. We’ll not only pay you back with the perks, but will give you many more years of junkyard cabaret in return.
Summer has arrived in Seattle and last week’s show at the Rogue & Peasant kicked it in with a vengeance! We got a couple more for the summer season and the next one will happen next Saturday, July 7th at The Q Cafe in Magnolia. This is part of a great series of matinees that Artist Home is putting on that brings bands that grown-ups love into a kid-friendly environment.
As all you parents out there know, seeing great live music gets harder and harder once kids come along. It can be painful to see “kid-friendly” bands when you’re a discerning music lover with eclectic tastes. Well, no worries! These shows are for you. They happen on Saturdays between 4 and 7pm so you can rock out with your kids and then get them home in time for a proper bedtime.
Now, I know a lot of you out there have the crazy idea that we aren’t such a family friendly band, but kids love us and we promise to curtail some of our raunchier material and language. Our singer Jimmy the Pickpocket’s 17-month old boy Desmond will be rocking out in the front row with all the other kiddies so you know he’ll have to behave.
Opening the show will be one of our favorite local bands at the moment, Nu Klezmer Army so this is a no-brainer. Even if you don’t have kids you can come out, see great music and then go out for a night on the town. We only have one other show this summer and that’s not until August so come out and enjoy. You can get more information and RSVP here.
Wow. What a month it’s been. Incredible lows and highs. The lows were talked about in our previous post, the highs were all the amazing celebrations of love and life we were lucky enough to have been a part of, Hales Palladium, The Neptune and then the other night at Conor Byrnes and The Tractor. Thanks to all our fellow friends and musicians that shared the stage with us. It was fantastic to have everyone together for such an important cause. Don’t forget, you can still donate by clicking on the widget to the right. The families of the victims and the lone survivor could really use it.
But, no worries, because the beat goes on and we got a show coming up this Saturday with some of our favorite rude boys. Opening the night will be Eugene’s ska kings, The Longshots and then Seattle’s own rocksteady rulers The Georgetown Orbits with an extra special appearance by none other than Lynval Golding of 2 Tone Ska legends The Specials! Also, our buddy Bill Geoghegan of Notables/Stingers/Contra Coup fame will be holding down the keys. As many know, we’re big fans of classic Jamaican music and it’s going to be a blast to get our dance on before we hit the stage. It all goes down at the Rogue & Peasant in Fremont, this Saturday, the 23rd. See you on the dance floor. More info here.
After that, on Saturday, July 7th, we got the Artist Home Family Matinee with our buddies in Nu Klezmer Army and then nothing ’til August. Summer vacation! See you guys at one of these fine events. Onwards and upwards!
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.
The Bad Things 