Badflower in Boston – February 27, 2023

The Los Angeles rock band Badflower brought their “Asking For a Friend” Tour to Boston’s Royale music venue. With them was the British indie rock duo, Blood Red Shoes, as well as the New York rock band, Des Rocs. Each group brought their own unique style of rock to pack the venue with eager fans.

Blood Red Shoes

Blood Red Shoes was up first for the night. The duo includes lead singer and guitarist, Laura-Mary Carter, and drummer Steven Ansell, who both hail from the UK. Their contrasting personalities were evident with Carter showcasing her serious vocals and refined demeanor. Meanwhile, Ansell enticed the crowd with his winks and contagious smile. Blood Red Shoes played a mix of older and newer tracks, including their 2008 hit, “It’s Getting Boring By The Sea”, that continues to do extremely well on Spotify.

Des Rocs

Next up was the New York based band, Des Rocs. Lead singer Daniel Rocco came out on stage with a flamboyant and electric spark, sporting a red leather outfit that can only be described as Dracula meets Elvis. The crowd was loving it as they sang nearly every song in unison while feeding off the energy Rocco was giving to them throughout their set. There was not a moment when the band dialed it down a notch. The highlights had to be when Des Rocs played, “Let Me Live / Let Me Die”, as well as when they played a new song, “Never Ending Moment”. One would think after such a lively set the lead singer would be ready to take a break and relax, but Rocco met with every single fan wanting to talk, get an autograph, or take a photo with him. This band is hungry and we will be seeing a lot more from them soon.

Badflower

Badflower opened their set heavy and strong with their track, “Fuck the World”. This song is a great example of how the band does an outstanding job of mixing styles. They can start things off calmly with powerful and deep lyrics, but then they will turn it up to a hard-hitting rock song. Lead singer, Josh Katz is notorious for not holding back or mincing words when creating lyrics or song titles. He also likes to have some fun with the audience, and add a little banter into the set. As soon as he saw the crowd surfers getting started, he reminded the crowd about a show back in the fall when Badflower was opening for My Chemical Romance in Boston, and how he was dropped during his own crowd surfing escapade. Katz threatened to take our Dunkin’ Donuts stores away if we dropped any crowd surfers during the show. He took it a step further and said he would replace our Dunkin’ Donuts with Starbucks. Those are fighting words for this crowd, but it apparently worked because no fans were dropped during this show.

Many of the biggest hits from Badflower are from the 2019 OK, I’M SICK album and fans were treated to “Ghost” and “The Jester” which had the entire audience passionately singing along. Katz decided to play another hit from that album while continuing to joke around with the enthusiastic audience. He improvised some of the lyrics for “Promise Me”, changing “I’m the happiest when you smile at me” to “I’m the happiest when you don’t drop me!” The crowd was cracking up and thoroughly enjoyed the humorous lyrical alteration.

The fans can appreciate what a unique experience they receive each time they see Badflower. This is one of the reasons the shows are packed even when Badflower has been to Boston three times in the past six months. The band appreciates their fans and each member gives so much of themselves in their performances. A sure way to get the crowds back through the doors, ready to rock!