BADFLOWER AT HOUSE OF INDEPENDENTS IN ASBURY PARK
Badflower set off on their “Ok, I’m Sick” tour with support from Weathers and Dead Poets Society. For their stop at House of Independents in Asbury Park, NJ they also brought out their friends and New Jersey natives, Deal Casino, from “up the street”. It’s no small feat that the band was able to boast quite a few sold out shows on this tour, the New Jersey show being one of them. After seeing the band live, it’s apparent why.
As Badflower prepared to take the stage, the lights went dark and the venue was filled with the some questionable sounds alongside the sound of moaning. The band’s backtrack featured a small skit about a dude masturbating and having his mom walk in on him. The venue erupted in laughter and the good spirits had begun. The band had a large structure on the back of the stage with little lights that were programed to spell out words. The words showed a “text” conversation explaining the skit before the band came out to follow with an explosive performance of “Wide Eyes”. Throughout the set the band played other hits off their album ‘Ok, I’m Sick’ which included “x Ana x”, “Die”, and “24”. They included a lot of their singles and tracks off their EP as well. That same background added to the performance by flashing lyrics throughout the set.
Watching the band perform was nothing short of entertaining. At one point, vocalist Josh Katz and guitarist Joseph Paul Marrow collided and Josh yelled into the microphone, “I think I just chipped my tooth on your guitar!” In addition to watching the band go wild on stage, the banter was also great to listen to. You can tell the band was clearly having a lot of fun performing. Something really memorable was when two fans held up signs to be brought on stage to play guitar for the same song and Josh’s response was to do rock, paper, scissors to figure out who would come up. He handed his guitar off to the fan and let him play for the song, which was truly an awesome moment to witness (shout out to that fan who actually killed it too!).
The band made a joke about walking off and coming back on to perform for the encore. The audience yelled the whole “One more song!” bit before the band came back to perform three encore songs. They brought out Chloe Chaidez (vocalist of Kitten) and the stage was truly a sight to see, with her wildly dancing and climbing the structures on the side. The band performed “Promise Me” as their last song and then left, with the venue full of screams and applause. Badflower was, without a doubt, a fantastic band to see live and I can’t wait to see how the band grows throughout their career. I wasn’t incredibly familiar with their discography before going to the show, but I can confidently say they definitely earned a new fan.
Nicole DiBenedetto is a photographer based out of New Jersey. She likes making new friends and meeting new people so catch her out in the pit and say hi!