Last night I went to the Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge to finally see Bad Rabbits live in action. Like I said in a previous post, every single time they’ve played in Boston I had another commitment so I was PUMPED to finally make it to a gig. Here’s how the night went…
First, I swung by Yawkey Way (which was weird because during Sox season you’re never allowed to drive down that street) to pick up Claire and then we cruised down Comm Ave trying to find Pete and eventually scooped him up. Ryan (aka Juice) met up with us at the venue after causing shenanigans with some Canadiens fans at the Bruins game.
The first band we caught was Green Line Inbound (an ode to Boston’s public transit system?) These guys played a mix of pop & rock built on a foundation of pure funk. Complete with a turntablist and 2 lead singers, GLI’s performance was incredibly energetic & completely danceable. I give massive props to their bass player who laid down the groove and was still able to sing and rhyme his way through covers of T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” and even “Can’t Hold Me Down.” Although funk music isn’t exactly commercially viable in today’s music industry, GLI is a solid live band with great vocals & tight musicianship.
After GLI, Bad Rabbits took the stage. Now at this point there was a decent crowd but as soon as 10:15 rolled around the place got packed. The Middle East venue has 2 stages, upstairs and downstairs. Upstairs is literally a 1/4 of the size of downstairs so it got a little tight but was awesome nonetheless.
What I love about Bad Rabbits is their mix of pop, heavy guitars, complementary synths that don’t overpower and lead singer, Dua’s, sweet R&B vocal stylings. I LOVES me some R&B so anybody who mixes the power of rock with the emotion of R&B is fantastic to me. You can definitely hear some parts of their new music that are reminiscent of their previous project, The Eclectic Collective, but this new material is much more in line with pop music rather than songs that go on for 8 minutes. Even though Bad Rabbits hasn’t even released their debut album practically everybody in the crowd knew the words and was singing along & bobbing their heads. My only complaint is that the set was too short! I was dying for an encore but a DJ had to set up to spin for the rest of the night. Overall, I give the show two thumbs way way up and I can’t wait to see what BR is going to do next.
-Lori
