Just Announced! Lucky Liquor in April.

12670043_1186670031360680_8333721719566863652_nIn the 14 years of The Bad Things existence, the band has played a variety of venues; from swanky cabarets and concert halls, to music festivals, breweries, schoolhouses, underground speakeasy’s and punk rock dive bars.

The latter has always been the true spiritual home of the band however. The character’s that inhabit their songs are daily drinkers that spend their last pennies at working class bars in an effort to black out the work week. The band’s first shows were at places like the 9LB Hammer, at the time a sole outpost of underground culture in a neighborhood that Seattle forgot.

Boy have times changed. Georgetown has become a hipster mecca and true dives are becoming harder and harder to find. This in a city that once boasted some of the dingiest shit holes known to man. A port town whose central business district was once dominated by strip bars, porn and gun shops, prostitutes and hustlers. Now you’d be hard pressed to find a dive bar not filled with ironic moustaches, tweed jackets and trust funders drinking PBR and Old Crow in an attempt to mimic authentic working class culture.

That’s why this show at Lucky Liquor, a punk rock dive bar if there ever was one, feels special. Located on the far south end of Boeing Field, on the shores of the Duwamish, one of the most polluted waterways in the United States, this feels like a homecoming of sorts. A return to the real south end, yet to be compromised by gentrification and hipster entrepreneurs, to gritty old Seattle, the true spiritual home of the Bad Things universe.

It’s made even better as they’ll be joined by fellow purveyors of vintage Northwest grit: Bakelite 78 and The Mongrel Jews.

Come celebrate Friday night and bask in an irony-free haven for the real working class. This will be the real deal my friends.

The Bad Things
Bakelite 78
and The Mongrel Jews
Friday, April 22, 2016
at Lucky Liquor – 10325 E Marginal Way S, Tukwila, WA 98168
Doors at 8pm. Cover is $8 advanced/$10 at the door.

Black Friday with The Bad Things!

November 2013This Friday, we’ll be gracing Darrell’s Tavern in Shoreline with the “Power Quartet” version of the band. Joining us will be Bakelite 78 and The Debaucherauntes. Join us won’t you?

Also on Friday, we’ll be selling all our merch, physical CDs and downloads for 50% off. We’re just feeling that Black Friday spirit this year or something. Give your friend some Bad Things that don’t involve antibiotics.

The Bad Things 11th Anniversary Show! June 27, 2013 at The Crocodile!

TheBadThings_FNL-WEBYeah, 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.

Tomorrow! A Benefit for a Fan and Friend.

277020_277508662377977_506556105_nOne 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

10 Days to Halloween and the 9th Annual Cabaret Macabre!

Halloween is almost upon us people and tickets are flying out the door, so I highly recommend picking up yours right away over at Brown Paper Tickets. We got a hell of a lineup, sure to be one of the best lineups yet. Baby Gramps! The Peculiar Pretzelmen! Bakelite 78! Bella Jovan International Belly Dancer! La Petite Mort! And, of course, our incomparable MC Diva le Déviant. Hesitate at your own peril!

Culture Mob’s Tom Mohrman Reviews Our Comet Show on Friday the 13th.

An Open Letter to the Capitol Hill Block Party: Book the Bad Things

  • by Tom Mohrman
The Bad Things Photo by Tom Mohrman

Dear Capitol Hill Block Party,

You Need to Book the Bad Things. The thing with this band is that within three songs the crowd will be swaying side to side, by the fourth the dancing will be open and unashamed. Accordion front man Jimmy the Pickpocket leers at the crowd and sings with a captivating energy reminiscent of Shane MacGowan crossed with Frank Black. Seeing them at the Comet on Friday the thirteenth was proof that Seattle loves the Bad Things. You could feel the wooden dance floor move under your feet like a trampoline. Continue reading

New Show Just Announced!

Yes, that’s right. We’ll be gracing The Comet Tavern on Friday, January 13th with an unbelievable lineup: The Bad Things, Bakelite 78, Bat Country and Gunstreet Glory. All good friends and all great drinking music. Prepare your livers because this one is going to hurt. All the pertinent details can be found here. This is the only show that we currently have booked this winter. Hoping to get down to Portland sometime soon and get into the studio in early Spring. And, finally, in preparation for the upcoming holiday, enjoy this Thanksgiving message from the one and only William S. Burroughs: Continue reading