Live review: Bad Time Records Tour at the Bluebird Theater

Denver, CO – 11 Mar 2023

Bad Time Records’ outstanding live tour highlights the new generation of ska.

I’ve been trying to see We Are the Union live for a minute now, ever since hearing their album Ordinary Life, which was my album of the year pick for 2021. A few years ago they announced a big New Year’s Eve show for Bad Time Records in Detroit with We Are the Union as the headliner. I worked extra hours at my day job to be able to afford the money for the ticket and the plane ticket for Detroit. But the band cancelled the show because of the high COVID numbers in Michigan at the time. I was forced to eat that plane ticket since it was a cheap airline that didn’t fly a lot of places.

Then, they were supposed to come through opening for The Slackers. Unfortunately, they ended up cancelling there as well because one of their members came down with COVID. COVID has gotten in the way of a lot of things, but none have been nearly as tragic as my desire to see this band. (Completely joking.) So when We Are the Union announced that they would not only finally be coming through Denver, but specifically as a triple headliner tour with other Bad Time Records’ bands, I was determined to make sure I didn’t miss them a third time.

The opening band was Bad Time Records’ band Omnigone, and I do owe them a slight apology. I hate skipping openers or even arriving late, especially if I’m reviewing the show. But I was a few minutes late and missed Omnigone’s first few songs and let me explain: there was an incident on my bus with a passenger who was threatening other people on the bus with violence. The bus driver pulled over and asked the man to get off, but he refused. So finally the bus driver pulled into a bus station. She pretended to have technical problems and told everyone she was waiting for a replacement bus. Then when the offending passenger got off the bus, she closed the doors and sped off without him. So I apologize that I missed Omnigone’s first few songs, but blame that jerk on the bus.

Now, what I did see of Omnigone was great. I wasn’t aware that Omnigone had members of Link 80. That isn’t a band that I know well but is definitely a name I’ve heard before. Omnigone was a really fun skacore band that showed the harder side of the genre. I sometimes think that Bad Time Records is out to collect all the different types of ska bands. They even seek out some real oddballs like Dissidente who are about 90% hardcore and 10% ska, and Eichlers who are sort of a hyperpop-meets-ska artist.

Omnigone are one of the more hardcore artists on the label. Frontman Adam Davis is the epitome of positive and healthy masculinity, with a very aggressive, hardcore energy to his performance. I’ve never really been that into Omnigone’s music. But hearing them live as well as hearing Davis’ stage banter–including a moment where he said one of his songs was about growing into someone who was nothing like Dicky Barrett–I will definitely be looking into their music more.

One of my favorite things about this show is that all these bands that are labelmates are such good friends that the band members all made appearances in each others’ sets. Jer Hunter, from We Are the Union, made at least one appearance with each band. While I’m pretty sure they were the only one to appear with all four, there were plenty of others who made a lot of appearances. Brittany Luna of Catbite and Emily Williams, who is the newest member of We Are the Union and who was also celebrating a birthday on the night of the show, made a lot of cameos with other bands. Williams especially stole the show with every appearance. But, of course, nobody can steal the spotlight quite like Jer.

Of the three headliners, Catbite went first. Brittany Luna–who already showed outstanding stage presence the first time I saw her back when they opened for Jeff Rosenstock–managed to develop even more and become even more of a force of nature on stage. She had the audience eating out of the palm of her hand. She really established herself as a leader and one of the most formidable frontwomen in ska or punk. Another highlight of the set was their keyboardist. This was a different keyboardist than the one I saw playing with them last time. Their website doesn’t list a permanent keyboardist so I assume that’s a rotating position for this band. But the keyboardist for this show had perfect energy, even picking up the keyboard and running around the stage.

Then came Kill Lincoln. Being old as I am, this is the band I chose to go to the back and sit down for. My back can’t handle standing up front through four bands. Also, honestly, Kill Lincoln was my least favorite band on this bill. That’s not to say that they’re bad. They’re a more of a standard, modern ska band in the same vein as Less Than Jake. I just don’t see much that makes them really stand out from the pack in ska the way Catbite and We Are the Union do. So it’s not a knock on their talent, there just isn’t a personality to this band that really interests me. They don’t engage me very well. Still, they put on a fine show, again with the help of some friends like Hunter and Williams.

Finally came the band I had been waiting for for years, We Are the Union. They started by playing a few songs I didn’t recognize and which I suspect were some obscure covers (but could be mistaken). Despite not recognizing the songs, the band instantly had a fun energy that the whole crowd responded to. And after a moment of confusion, everyone settled in as the band began playing their own songs.

One of my favorite things about We Are the Union is the contrasting energy of the band members. Frontwoman Reade Wolcott had a very serious demeanor as she played. Meanwhile, Hunter and Williams over in the horn section were turning Wolcott’s heartfelt songs into a dance party. It made for a perfect energy to me because Wolcott spoke to the side of me that connected to her lyrics about coming out as a trans woman–which is something I can relate to–and Hunter and Williams spoke to the side of me that was looking to have a good time. In that sense, We Are the Union became both an art-punk band and a party band at the same time.

One complaint I wanted to make that has nothing to do with the bands and everything to do with the venue was this: apparently at the Bluebird Theater in Denver, your only choices to get water is to either pay $3 for bottled water at the bar, or take your chances at a communal drinking fountain. In 2023, in a not-really-post-COVID world, it’s a gross public health issue to not offer a free and safe way to get water at a concert that’s likely to get you dehydrated. We might be punks, but there’s nothing punk about dying of dehydration or COVID. Not having a better source for water was irresponsible on the part of the venue. The bartender insisted that I didn’t have to put my mouth directly on the drinking fountain. That wasn’t quite the reassurance he seemed to think it was.

But that aside, this was the most fun I’ve had at a concert of any sort in a long time. Bad Time Records consistently proves themselves to be the best label for the up-and-coming generation of ska artists. It’s appropriate that Omnigone brought up Dicky Barrett, because Bad Time seems to be the home for the new era of ska, the fourth-wave I’ve been talking about for years. There’s new stars in the ska scene now, and it’s time for the old dinosaurs to move over for the next generation.