Live Review: Badflower - Electric Ballroom, London 01/12/2022
Not only do people around the world get to open the first door of their advent calendar — a nice Lindt one in my case — but a near-2000 throng of people got to go to Camden on a foggy Thursday and sing, screech, shout and sweat to their heart’s content, as American rock outfit Badflower visited London’s Electric Ballroom, with Dead Poet Society supporting.
The first impression Electric Ballroom got of bluesy-hard rock American outfit Dead Poet Society, other than excitement of seeing someone on stage after an hour of waiting, was ‘how the hell is that guy wearing shorts?’ With it being about 5C outside, it’s a fair enough question. But, as they broke into opener .burymewhole., complete with eardrum-ruining bass, pounding drums, and toe-curdling screams, and the crowd began to head-bang, jump, and eventually crash into each other, the answer was clear — the few brief moments of leg-cold helped incentivise a frantic live show. Sound and Silence helped drag the crowd screaming into the set, harmonising along, while .loveyoulikethat. let Jack’s beautiful falsetto take centre stage, before the near-inevitable breakdown and light show joined in and set the stage alight. .AmericanBlood. let Jack take a rest, the crowd taking over vocal duties for a spell — and the legion of fans present in June getting to show off their knew-them-when-they-were-indie badges — while the following .Salt., sounding somewhere between the musical equivalent of a spider crawling down your spine and a hoover stuck on a particularly stubborn piece of twine — in a good way — helped give the piercing instrumentals a shot.
Finally, their set had to come to an end. Lo Air came first, with bassist Nick Taylor taking a quick video of the passionate crowd, right before Jack stripped down to just the shorts — temperatures might be rising globally, but they’re also rising in the packed Camden ballroom — as the four-piece flew into the fantastic .intoodeep., complete with the explosive and expansive crowd- doughnut. Then, finally, the fantastic, anthemic coda, complete with expansive pit. What more could you want?
More rock, obviously.
Strolling onstage as the venue music was gradually silenced, there was little time to build the suspense — and, evidently, nor would Badflower want there to be. Launching straight into the chaos-ridden Fuckboi — Alex Espiritu leaping around, Josh Katz reveling in the mayhem of the mob assembled before him — and the surprisingly emotive deep cut White Noise, taken from 2016’s Z, the band, and the crowd, were thrust straight into it. There was little breathing room, either, as the crammed Camden hall began to scream and sway to Don’t Hate Me, Josh briefly taking on the persona of a helpless romantic-turned-creep in the interlude — and not for the only time, either.
In fact, a lot of the songs on display were a little insidious, morally dubious — songs that Andrew Tate hums to himself when thinking about how amazing he is, perhaps. But they also range from tongue-in-cheek (the riotous, rocky ‘Johnny Wants To Fight’) to aggressively accusatory (‘Stalker’) and even purely heartbreaking (as with Tethered, sadly not played).
Speaking of Johnny Wants To Fight, a placement early in the set ensured that decent sophomore album This Is How The World Ends got a fantastic first London showing from the get go, at their biggest headline show this side of America. The contemplative, toxic-relationship-esque Heroin, then, was the perfect way to celebrate — and not just because the bass line, twisted and lowered slightly, may bring to mind a certain clandestine, traditionally British theme tune. Similarly, the painstaking and passionate Jester, with its green and purple light show, brought to mind a different popular vaudevillian centerpiece.
x Ana x, meanwhile, was pure, unfiltered Badflower — ferocity and fun blended together, even giving the crowd a disastrous attempt at shouting the bridge themselves. The track possessed the same energy as a cult leader calling to the masses, but with a lot more pizazz. And guitars, probably. Ghost then, showing its crowd-favourite, nihilistic, plea-for-help face, to follow the metaphor, served both as the poisoned punch and what’s still to come.
And then the set took a turn for the heartbreaking, as the band left Josh to face the slow ballad Move Me alone, up until the haunting, visceral climax — easily one of, if not the, highlight(s) of the night.
This emotional reprieve — if anything about that track could be called a ‘break’ — didn’t last long, however, as both the seething Drop Dead and a disastrously funny London accent, as well as the slow, twisting Mother Mary and the romantic ear-worm of Promise Me thrilled, entertained and generally serenaded the crowd.
The part-hilarious, part-terrifying Stalker, Badflower’s modern day answer to Eminem’s super-fan ‘Stan’, came next; with Josh flying into the front of the crowd to scream the acerbic, bigoted rhetoric at the crowd, and Anthony Sonetti launching into a big ol’ drum solo, the band seemed to become as self-indulgent as the track’s persona. There was just enough tongue-in-cheek laughter to undermine the hate, but enough seriousness (and a worrying amount of accuracy!) in reflecting the same narcissism as in the self-titled incel community, to show just how dangerous it can be.
They were even joined by Dead Poet Society’s Jack, on the way to the toilet, after a quick cheer-conducting!
The same vein of moral message followed in penultimate track, the protesting, accusatory Machine Gun — ‘This is how the world ends’ feeling both particularly meaningful and depressing — although the preceding dead babies joke perhaps took away some of the power.
Finally, the band had to close off their set. Unsurprisingly, the slow builder Family had the honour. The first single from This Is How The World Ends, it’s somehow both as unsettling and depressing as it is powerful and poignant, particularly in light of mental health becoming such a focus in the music industry (and beyond), and the need and call for vulnerability becoming paramount. A fantastic way to end the night.
Except obviously it wasn’t — there’s still the encore! In this case, after a quick break to catch breaths or empty bladders, whatever bands do in those snatched moments, Electric Ballroom were treated to two songs: Girlfriend and 30.
Girlfriend, a rowdy piece of rock, seemingly the precursor to Stalker, and 30, a frank, unfiltered outpouring of existential angst in the face of ageing — the panic-stricken mania a constant throughout — were perfect choices to try to, if not lighten the mood, perhaps at least end the gig on a slightly more positive note. And it seemed to work, the bridge in the latter being happily screamed along with, with some extended instrumentals helping to build the otherwise fairly brief song into a nice fiery final climax. Basically, two songs to cap off a superb show, from two great bands who prioritise frenetic fun as much as their own talent. What a show, what a night, and presumably what a tour — let’s just hope it doesn’t take another three years to get Badflower back, eh?
Words by James O’Sullivan
Photography by Abigail Shii
