WHXR presents Badflower

Saturday, 03 June 2023 Portland, ME

9:00 pmShow time
8:00 pmDoor time

25.00Standard Ticket

Beauty blooms from discomfort. The second we squirm at the utterance of a lyrical echo of a guitar chord is the moment we learn about our limits and, perhaps, make a change in our lives. Badflower isn’t afraid of making anybody uncomfortable. TheGOLD-certified Los Angeles-bred and Nashville-based quartet—Josh Katz [lead singer, guitarist], Joey Morrow [lead guitar, backing vocals], Alex Espiritu [bass], and Anthony Sonetti [drums]—siphon stress, sleeplessness, sex, sadness, mania, pain, and truth into revelatory alternative anthems. Katz’s quivering confessions seep into climactic distortion and, like any good rush, you need more. They deliver this rush on their 2021 second full-length offering, This Is How The WorldEnds(Big Machine/John Varvatos Records).“It’s hopefully more than just brutal honesty,” muses Katz. “To me, it’s sassy, uncomfortable, funny, clever, and sad. It wasn’t a casual process. It’s all in, so I’m all in.I don’t stop. I don’t quit. I cry a lot. I neglect everything else. There was no reason to set an alarm and wake up in the morning. There was no reason to do anything but make the best album possible. That’s what we did.”Badflower continues to commit body, blood, mind, and soul to their art. They’ve certainly grinded to get to this point. After forming in Los Angeles in 2014, they dropped two EPs before sending shockwaves throughout rock with their 2019 full-length debut,OK, I’M SICK.LoudWirehailed it among the“50 Best Rock Albums of 2019,” while the singles“The Jester,” “Heroin,” and “Ghost” vaulted to No. 1atRock Radio. Not to mention, he later picked up a GOLD certification from the RIAA and win as iHeartRadio Music AwardsRock Song of the Year. Along the way, they garnered further acclaim from Nylon, Alternative Press, Music Connection, and Substream Magazine and performed on The Late Late Show with James Cordenas well as Last Call with Carson Daly. They’re the rare act that can ignite a crowd at Kaboo Del Maror Sonic Temple in addition to sharing bills with the likes of Cage the Elephant, Ghost, Nothing More, Shinedown, Sound garden, and many more. Thus far,they’vealsogathered over 100 million streams and counting. Meanwhile, one-off singles “30” and “F*ck The World” reached Top 5 and Top 10 at rock radio, respectively. Before the Global Pandemicswallowed 2020 whole, Josh and Co. had began penning ideas for what would eventually become This Is How The World Ends. Asshit got real in Los Angeles, and the band and their“extended family” of crew and friends picked up and moved to Nashville.“We’dwanted to rescue animals and live on a farm forever,” admits Josh.“Once we got settled, I built a little studio in a barn where I sleep and we finished the record.”The best kind of obsession catalyzed the process. When it came to production, the band took the reins, preserving an intense unpredictability. At the same time, Josh would watch and rewatch fan-captured live performances on YouTube in order to draw inspiration for recording.

“It was actually just because I’m a narcissist,” he grins. “We worked so hard to make it feel spontaneous, raw, real, and natural though. The drum takes are exactly what Anthony did at the moment. There was no demoing. We set everything up properly and pressed record. If it was good, it was good. Some of the vocal takes are first takes. We had no clock. It’s the most human thing we’ve ever done.”Speaking of humans, the first single “Family” hovers over an ominous drum beat as Josh’s voice barely breaks a whisper. Clean guitar glows through the basslines he confesses,“affection makes me nauseous, believe me, I don’t want this,” before an exhale of distorted catharsis, “Cuz I let you down, and I lost my fucking mind…What happened to this family?” Some people have a perfect white picket fence; I certainly didn’t,” he reveals.“I have family issues that linger. Throughout my twenties, I placed so much blame on that. I allowed myself to validate slowly dipping out of everyone’s lives and not talking to my sisters or parents. It’s easier to call yourself the victim. I realized it was an excuse to be shitty, and it was a problem. I have trouble talking to family members, so I wrote the song.”Elsewhere, “Don’t Hate Me” hinges on a push-and-pull between palm-muted guitar and a chantable chorus. It culminates in a breakdown where his inner dialogue screams out before the final strains of piano taper off.“It’s a lot of self-awareness,” he goes on. “On the bridge, there’s a meta dialogue where I explain how I’ve changed my entire life and my appearance.”The album teeters between searing nostalgic introspection on the acoustic intro“Adolescent Love” and the clarion call of “Machine Gun” where the title resounds, “This is how the world ends.”The ride comes to an end on the sardonically elegiac “My Funeral.” Soft strumming brushes up against visceral admissions such as“Imagine if I took my life, gave up on love, and died tonight?”, coated in a softly blissful delivery.“It’s not as simple as saying, ‘I’m sad and want to die’,” he states. “It doesn’t paint me in the perfect light a lot of artists want to be painted in—or truly beaten down by the world and just trying to be the best version of themselves. I’m admitting I’m not trying to be the best version of myself. I don’t even know what that looks like. I don’t know how to change it. All I know is how to write about it. Now, we have this album.”In the end, Badflower’s honesty burns in the best way.“This band means everything to me,” he leaves off. “I’m so obsessive because the music is going to outlive me. I care a lot about what this band could mean for other people. The legacy is almost more important to me than my happiness or success. I don’t know why. It’s probably something I should analyze on the next record,” he laughs

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