The Verge

Bad Moves

Sunday, May 14th 2023  
Bad Moves + The Dreaded Laramie  
9:00pm - $15 - All Ages

BAD MOVES  
Washington, DC  
https://badmoves.bandcamp.com/

Chaos Year aside, the most surprising day of 2020 was when a (since deleted) well-written and good-hearted list of the author’s 100 favorite power pop bands resulted in a cavalcade of bile and aggression from…power pop fans. Stunningly, these fans (and musicians) police their genre with the same religious zeal and sneering condemnation as hardcore or metal fans. Theirs is a genre of structure, of proud lineages to 60s and 70s pop heroes, of sticky hooks arranged with dioramic precision. A breath of fresh air was needed in the stuffy discourse. We needed a loose cannon. Enter Bad Moves: a D.C. band that plays energetic, freewheeling power pop that pulls from punk as well as from vintage power pop. The album frequently rises to the heights of early New Pornographers: “Party With the Kids…” has the groovy simmer of Dan Bejar’s New Pornos contributions, and the breathless 2-and-a-half minutes of “Local Radio” lines up hook after hook until the whole thing topples over into a sing-along that recalls “The Bleeding Heart Show”‘s triumphant coda. Untenable manages to address the oppressiveness of existence under late-stage capitalism on songs like “Working For Free” in a way that still makes you want to shimmy. I shouted along to “That’s not a bug, that’s a feature!” as I shook my butt mournfully through my apartment, afraid of losing my job and my elderly family members and music venues and years of my life, twerking into the dread, throwing ass into the yawning void. – Keegan Bradford, The Alternative

THE DREADED LARAMIE  
Nashville, TN  
https://thedreadedlaramie.bandcamp.com/

The Dreaded Laramie is a power-pop femmecore band in a long-distance relationship between Lexington, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee. This band of best buds first got ears buzzing with their 2019 debut The Dreaded LaramiE.P., produced by Adam Meisterhans of West Virginia riff merchants Rozwell Kid. The record was hailed by The Alternative as “\[rivalling\] the royalty of the genre”, while Music City tastemakers Lightning 100 branded them as a “must listen”, not to mention the radio rotation from the Rocky Mountains to the British Isles.  
The Dreaded Laramie join a growing chorus of young Southern bands challenging what it is to be normal. Bassist Drew Swisher explains “normalcy defines our dreams and what we think is possible. But everybody’s weird, we just try desperately to hide it.” In their songs, The Dreaded Laramie celebrate living authentically with vocalist/guitarist MC Cunningham delivering thoughtful dispatches on gender expectations, insecurity, and a healthy portion of all-consuming crushes. Vitally, this is a band for whom having an emotional heart-to-heart and having fun are not at odds with each other. Their emotive reflections are served up drenched in shimmering sweet melodies, a decadent dose of harmonized guitar interplay, and a power-punching rhythm section.

ACCESSIBILITY INFO: Comet is wheelchair accessible

All ages

Bad Moves

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