BADDIES - event info
5 Mar
BADDIES
Venue
53 Degrees
Doors
9.30pm
Curfew
2.30am
Price
£7.00
(includes b/f of £1.00 per ticket)
Age
Over 18s only
Baddies, who only formed 18 months ago and have already gained a reputation as one of the most exciting new bands around, yada yada, were one of the buzz bands (can't believe we just said "buzz bands") at Manchester's In The City. They come from Southend, in the wake of acts as varied as the Horrors, These New Puritans, Scroobius Pip and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, acts, indeed, way too varied to be corralled into anything remotely resembling a homogenous "scene". That said, they do remind us in a way of Switches, a Southend outfit who we did as a New Band of the Day last year and whose infectious glam stomp'n'roll should have achieved wider success.
But mostly, Baddies bear trace elements of a variety of groups from all corners of the globe, although we can't quite fathom the references early supporters have been making to Talking Heads. Baddies are far scratchier and punkier than that, and there's very little funk in what they do. They're a white indie band, through and through. Well, it's not a crime. Yet. The "woo woo woo woo's you can hear on their debut single Battleships are pure Blur circa Song 2. At the Party has the thrust and parry of Hives. Who Are You? has the phlegmatic urgency of early Manic Street Preachers, with a semi-rapped middle bit that makes us think of Adam & the Ants, while Tiffany I'm Sorry and Open One Eye could have been the sixth and seventh singles lifted off that first Kaiser Chiefs album, so relentlessly do they drill their hooks into your brain.
Warning: it's Baddies, not the Baddies, and although they sound quite rough and tough, we're not sure how far they're prepared to take their aversion to the definite article in case you were thinking of getting it wrong in front of them, just to wind them up, like. Mind you, the singer used to front a metal band called Engerica, which sounds quite scary and intimidating. Then again, they wear matching blue suits onstage and Alexander McQueen, the self-styled "hooligan of English fashion", is apparently a huge fan and is poised – very poised, knowing him – to dress Baddies, so they can't be that bad, or hard. Their music is, though – hard, that is, not bad – full of muscular riffs and meaty choruses, delivered energetically and with a determination to encourage audiences to work up a sweat. If that sort of thing turns you on.
Queens of the Stone Age, Rocket from the Crypt, Iglu & Hartley, Kaiser Chiefs.
But mostly, Baddies bear trace elements of a variety of groups from all corners of the globe, although we can't quite fathom the references early supporters have been making to Talking Heads. Baddies are far scratchier and punkier than that, and there's very little funk in what they do. They're a white indie band, through and through. Well, it's not a crime. Yet. The "woo woo woo woo's you can hear on their debut single Battleships are pure Blur circa Song 2. At the Party has the thrust and parry of Hives. Who Are You? has the phlegmatic urgency of early Manic Street Preachers, with a semi-rapped middle bit that makes us think of Adam & the Ants, while Tiffany I'm Sorry and Open One Eye could have been the sixth and seventh singles lifted off that first Kaiser Chiefs album, so relentlessly do they drill their hooks into your brain.
Warning: it's Baddies, not the Baddies, and although they sound quite rough and tough, we're not sure how far they're prepared to take their aversion to the definite article in case you were thinking of getting it wrong in front of them, just to wind them up, like. Mind you, the singer used to front a metal band called Engerica, which sounds quite scary and intimidating. Then again, they wear matching blue suits onstage and Alexander McQueen, the self-styled "hooligan of English fashion", is apparently a huge fan and is poised – very poised, knowing him – to dress Baddies, so they can't be that bad, or hard. Their music is, though – hard, that is, not bad – full of muscular riffs and meaty choruses, delivered energetically and with a determination to encourage audiences to work up a sweat. If that sort of thing turns you on.
Queens of the Stone Age, Rocket from the Crypt, Iglu & Hartley, Kaiser Chiefs.