Tag Archives: Seattle

Kicking 2026 Off With A Bang!

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How is it 2026 already? Feels like 2025 flew by in a horrible, dystopian flash. Here’s hoping 2026 is a little more….hopeful?

Good news is, we are going to be playing a ton in the first half of the year. We’re kicking things off on Sunday, January 18th with a Bad Things Trio (accordion/banjo/upright bass) show at Ballard’s Old Stove Gardens. It’s an all ages, afternoon show and we’re going on around 6pm PST, so great news to all the old timers.

Then, on Saturday, February 14th, yes, Valentine’s Day, we’re going to be hosting an epic cabaret night featuring us, The Party Cats, burlesque by Jenny Penny and Jimmy the Pickpocket (aka DJ Pickpocket) will be spinning weird and wonderful love songs from his extensive 45 collection. The Bad Things set will feature love songs from throughout our career and many we haven’t played in over a decade. We’re talking: “The Breaking,” “Bonnie To My Clyde,” “Can’t Get Enough of Love,” “Twilight,” and even a cover of our old buddy Drew’s epic “Zorno’s Waltz” as performed by Circus Contraption and God’s Favorite Beefcake. After the “love” set, Jenny will do some more burlesque and we’ll finish off with a short set of Bad Things “classics.”

It’s at Tim’s Tavern in White Center. They have been going through some tough financial times, so be sure to support them by buying tickets to this show and donating to their fundraiser here. They are a valuable asset to the south end’s live music scene so we got to be sure we don’t lose them.

Tickets go on sale at 10:00AM PST today, so pick yours up here.

We’ll be returning to Portland in early March for a full band set, and we’ll be back to Carnation and Ballard with our “For Shane” tribute nights to The Pogues and Shane MacGowan, just in time for St. Patty’s Day.

2026 is shaping up nicely. Get those tickets, save Tim’s and we’ll see you out there. Cheers!

Back To Our Busker Roots – Walk Don’t Run Festival This Saturday!

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Back in the day, like 2001/2002, it was a common sight to catch me and Mad Wilcox playing our songs in the Pike Place Market by the gyro stand. Our first band Midnite Choir also busked regularly and in those days, if you weren’t in the market, you’d get driven off by business owners, security and police. That never deterred us as it was a great way to test out new songs and see which ones actually got folks to stop and listen.

Well, this Saturday, we return to those roots, sort of. Unlike the Seattle at the turn of the century, downtown has become much more of a cultural hub. Buskers are regular sights, even outside the market and there are festivals like Walk Don’t Run, that attempt to inject art into every nook and cranny of the downtown corridor.

Hosted by the folks at Shunpike, a long-running Seattle arts institution, WDR is an “arts marathon,” meaning folks purchase a free ticket and walk along a pre-determined path through downtown with arts experiences activated as you continue down the path. It starts in Pioneer Square at noon and ends in Belltown at 6pm. We will be closer to the beginning at the Norton Building Plaza. Our set will run from 1pm to 3pm. We will be lightly amplified but it will still be a return to our sidewalk days. We have tailored our set to songs that work best in a busking environment, so expect some covers, some oldies and some newer songs we’ve been working on. Check us out but stay all day, walk the marathon and marvel at all the talent that resides in our Emerald City.

The Bad Things Vaudeville Show Returns in 2025!

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What a strange, dystopian year we’ve had here in America. Doesn’t even feel fun to joke about the apocalypse when it feels so damn close. But, those of us in the thick of it still find time to dance, drink and celebrate. Human nature suggests we enjoy partying while everything burns around us.

In the spirit of hopeless revelry in the face of doom, we proudly present the return of The Bad Things Vaudeville Show! We did this first in partnership with Chaotic Noise Marching Corps last fall at Miller’s in Carnation. We decided we needed to bring it to our favorite venue in Seattle, The Clock-Out Lounge and they were gracious enough of have us. Joining the madness will be The Black Hearts Society, Leslie Rosen and our old partner in crime Miss J9 Fierce.

This is our first show in Seattle in 2025 and actually our first show period since being holed up in the studio all winter recording our forthcoming new record. We’ll be featuring some of these songs alongside Bad Things classics and a couple songs with Chaotic Noise. Point is, it’ll be a night to remember and you’d be an idiot to miss it. Don’t be an idiot!

Get your tickets here before they’re gone. We will also have a fresh new batch of Bad Things accordion-logo t-shirts and every t-shirt order gets a free Bad Things CD of their choice! What a deal. See you soon kiddies.

Back to the Market with the Rusty Cleavers – April 27th

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That’s right, we return to our birthplace, the Pike Place Market for a special night of junkyard cabaret and “queer-loving, Black Lives Matter proclaiming, progressive pickin’ from the heart of Tacoma” from The Rusty Cleavers. Here they are doing their bluegrass tribute to The Misfits.

We have a decades-old history with The Rabbit Box Theatre, having played our first shows there when it was Patti Summers Cabaret and then flexing our theatrical muscles in the aughts with the Can Can Castaways. Tonight we promise a night of new songs, favorite covers and timeless classics.

We will also have copies of the amazing poster art from Kathy Moore. These are definitely frame-worthy and continues our tradition of collectible posters for the Rabbit Box shows from Kathy. Get yours and get some Bad Things on your walls.

Tickets are $15 advanced / $18 day-of-show so get yours now at: https://givebutter.com/TheBadThings-April-27

The Bad Things Return to The Funhouse – Friday, December 15

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So many memories at the old Funhouse….playing on the bar, the first Punk As Folk, so many green room antics…it’s where this band grew up. Of course, that was back at the original location by the Seattle Center, but this room manages to maintain the same free-spirited, drunken energy.

We will be returning to said room on Friday, December 15 2023 for a night of new songs, old songs and maybe even a Christmas song…probably not….but, maybe. Opening the show will be the like minded dark and acoustic Phantom Pines.

Funhouse has an all-ages show earlier so we got the late slot for the adults. Doors are at 9pm. Music starts at 10pm. Start prepping your livers ’cause this’ll be a rambunctious crowd I’m betting. Get advanced tickets here.

We’re Back! And in Georgetown!

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It’s gonna feel good to come home! Fifteen years ago, The Bad Things started making noise in a Georgetown factory and performing ramshackle live performances at the local watering hole, the 9LB Hammer.

Georgetown was a different place then but the Hammer remains true to the neighborhood’s original spirit. A spirit which birthed this band. A little punk. A little blue collar. A little weirdo. And a little old-timey.

It’ll be just us all night long so expect a night of dusting off old nuggets from the past, playing old favorites and throwing in a few covers here and there. As always at the Hammer, there is no cover so that means you have no excuse not to be there. We always seem to play well when we’re there. Feels like home.

This is also your only chance to see us this fall as we are not doing Cabaret Macabre this year. As sad it is to say, that event ran its course, had a good run but don’t worry, we’ll be doing more cabaret-themed shows in the future. We’re not that easy to get rid of.

See everyone on Saturday, September 23rd at the 9LB Hammer – 6009 Airport Way South. If you want, go ahead and RSVP on the Facebook page.

It’s October. Here Comes Cabaret Macabre!

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Poster by Robert “Nix” Nixon.

It’s that time of year once again. Cabaret Macabre is back for its 13th installment. Hard to believe. So for such a significant number we have to up the ante as far as the bill goes, right? No worries. We’ve found one of the best folk bands currently playing the west coast, will welcome the return of a Seattle legend for his 13th year and welcome our old friends from Portland via Russia. There will, as always, be dance performance scattered in with the bands and this year’s lineup features some of Seattle’s finest burlesque and bellydance performers. And though the great Diva Le Deviant is sitting this year out as MC, her replacement is more than capable of filling her shoes. But she will be missed.

Due to it being a Monday, we’ll be starting the show a little early. The show starts at 8pm with The Bad Things expected to hit the stage at 10pm. We’ll try to get you home by midnight. Promise.

And…without further ado, may I introduce this year’s 13th Annual Cabaret Macabre lineup:

Musical Performance by:
The Bad Things
Chervona (Portland, OR)
Baby Gramps
and Intuitive Compass (Grants Pass, OR).

Burlesque performance by Sinner Saint Burlesque’s
Lady TaTas and Dona Dei Cuori

Bellydance performance by Miss J9 Fierce and Danse Carouselle

MC Sailor St. Claire

Monday, October 31st, 2016
The 13th Annual Cabaret Macabre
featuring The Bad Things, Chervona, Baby Gramps and more!
Columbia City Theater – 4916 Rainier Avenue South.
$20 advanced/$25 day of show

This event is 21+ with ID!

Death of the Inferno….with a Freakin’ Choir!

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Jimmy and Austin had the esteemed honor to perform and record a choral version of “Death of the Inferno” with the Singing in the Rain Family Choir last month as part of their “Sing Local” series. The result is one of the most gorgeous versions of this Bad Things classic you may ever hear. Here’s a video from the live performance. Stay tuned for more info on the CD release.

Just Announced! Lucky Liquor in April.

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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.