Tag Archives: Seattle

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.

Goodbye Daniel Adam Driskill. We’re Sure Gonna Miss You.

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1506430_10152407283107146_9047259591095658957_nSeems 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.

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Daniel Adam Driskill in all his glory! Friday, January 13, 2012 at The Comet Tavern. Photo by Jon Roy.

Second Stop on our North to South Seattle Tour? Eastlake!

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March 2014Thanks 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.

Hitting Ballard in Three Weeks with Gold Hope Duo and Baby Gramps!

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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.