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Seattle's The Bad Things have a pedigree that's hard for me to argue with: they pulled a phoenix by growing out of the ashes of the great A Midnite Choir. While the 'Choir was an intimate trio The Bad Things have blossomed into a wonderfully complex ensemble of (at least) six performers. And they are performers. They evoke characters on stage, they entertain with a show. But at the heart of it all they're talent musicians.
"Vaudeville Show" is their second release and continues to explore the band's scruffy and dark, yet entertaining, world view. At its essence vaudeville was like watching television without being able to control the remote: every few minutes the channel would change and a new performer would appear to try to grab your attention. The Bad Things understand the audiences desire for constant variety. The instrumentation on this CD is wonderfully varied and any number of song styles are plundered. This recording has polkas, waltzes, sea shanties, circus themes and junkyard cabaret.
This is a well rounded album, it's peppered with sinister asides (thanks to Seth "Danny Dead" Witz) and tempered with instrumentals. It can make you laugh as on the slightly scatological introduction of "The Bad Things Vaudeville Show" or the gleefully mean-spirited Spike Jones-meets-Dead Kennedys rave up of "Kill Yourself". But they're not always a scream... at least not in a comedic way.
Th Bad Things have developed a reputation as a dance band. True there are danceable elements and it's refreshing to see an audience actually DANCE (as opposed to drunkenly bashing into each other). But the songs are so frequently funeral and bleak that you'll stop waltzing to slit your wrists.
Don't worry about getting lost in such an assortment of sound. On "Vaudeville Show" the band has created a loose story line for you to follow from piece to piece. The concept album strategy isn't really necessary, it's interesting and fun but the songs all hold up on their own. Because, at their heart, The Bad Things know that to be a great band means writing wonderful songs that are catchy and moving.
Their skill at song writing is illustrated no better than on the song "The Breaking". The two greatest themes in storytelling are falling in love and falling OUT of love. It should come as no surprise that the end of a relationship is what would appeal to these musical freebooters. accordionist/singer Jimmy "The Pickpocket" Berg and percussionist/singer Stephanie "Miss Funi" McLaughlin trade verses reminding each other why they got together and why the can't stay together any longer. "The Breaking" is a classic of the lost (or losing) love genre. It shows that the end of a relationship is a ghost of what it started to be, Love becomes a revenant of hope, possibility echoes itself in a list of regrets. If you can't hear your life in this dirge waltz then you've never had a real love to lose. Yet the darkness of the song is still balanced by the band's bitter humor.
The Bad Things know that you're here for the show, for entertainment. They are a vaudeville act in that they help us forget our problems for awhile, we get caught up in it all. In a way it's too bad that the band is performing now because they may have missed their perfect venue: The Bad Things should have been playing the ballroom when the Titanic went down.
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The Bad Things
http://www.thebadthings.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thebadthings
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