The Bads, at the Old Mill, Napier, 15 July 2017

A crowd of about sixty people braved the wild weather to come out and see The Bads perform at the Old Mill.  Given that the band had been stuck in Taupo waiting for the snow to be cleared off the road over to Hawke's Bay, it was the least we could do.

Despite there being no opening act, our host Jamie MacPhail introduced Dave Kahn (part of The Bads himself) to perform a short set of songs, some of which he assured us were true stories, although I don't think many of us had seen a frog and mouse wedding as he described it in "Mr Frog went-a-courting".  It was a mixture of humour and virtuoso guitar and violin playing.

Following a brief pause The Bads came on and blasted out a selection of tunes from their new album "Losing Heroes" and some older songs as well.  The Bads sound is a mixture of a solid, driving rhythm section, with soaring vocal harmonies from Brett Adams and Dianne Swann, and a dash of guitar which at times is dreamy and surf inspired, and where necessary becomes a growling monster of blues inspired soloing. 

After a false ending and a promise of 2 more songs (even though the crowd was bidding for 3 or more) the night ended with the closing track from the album "West" and we had to head out from the warmth of the Old Mill back into the wild weather outside, having witnessed another stunning show by an iconic New Zealand band.

The Bads:

Dianne Swann: Guitar, Vocals
Brett Adams: Guitar, Vocals
Dave Kahn: Guitar, Mandolin, Violin and everything else
Ben King: Bass, Backing Vocals
Wayne Bell: Drums