What: The Lovely Bad Things
When: 9 p.m., Friday
Where: 7th St. Entry, 701 N. First Ave., Minneapolis
Cost: $8 in advance, $10 at the door
Age: 18+
Brought together through high school familiarity and band breakups, Orange County’s garage band The Lovely Bad Things arrived on the music scene in 2009. The four multi-instrumentalists, Lauren Curtius, Tim Hatch and brothers Camron and Brayden Ward, have been writing and recording frantic punk, power punk and fast, punky-pop songs ever since.
The Lovely Bad Things arrived at their name by chance, originating from the title of a children’s novel, “All the Lovely Bad Ones,” and the present title was a result of an error.
“It was a typo,” Camron Ward said. “We liked it better because it was a little bit more weird, a little bit more us.”
Behind the esoteric moniker, which leads you to assume its composers are unconventional, perhaps gritty, the band is far from any emotional rifts within. They are inextricably linked, with bloodlines between the Ward brothers and kisses between lovers Lauren and Brayden Ward. A long-time friend to the others, Del Taco aficionado Hatch completes the family.
When speaking with Camron, who was on the road with the crew kicking off a tour for their second full-length “The Late Great Whatever,” his audible interactions with the other members is comfortable and caring, a discernable sense of affection almost too ideal.
“In all reality, we really like traveling with each other,” Camron said, “Because we’re all easy to get along with. I love them all to death.”
This bond may stem from the quartet’s dreams of half-attainable, half-fictitious careers when the four were younger. In this poker game, Tim coolly raises Power Ranger to Camron’s Indiana Jones, and Brayden’s architect sees Lauren’s doctor. None of them had aspirations to be the next Kurt Cobain; they took the punk-en path in high school and tread on, dismissing former yearnings.
“In high school we hung out with the punk kids, so we got all of that influence,” Camron said, “and then you pick up a guitar and fall in love with it, and that’s the end of it.”
Born out of that initial draw to the punk scene and then adding influences from punk predecessors Nirvana and The Pixies, the Lovely Bad Things harness a punchy radio-pop-meets-punk sound, aiming to make music that’s available to the masses.
“We tend to try to make our music, every song, sound different on every record,” Camron said, “We don’t pigeon- hole ourselves into something genre specific; we try to apply ourselves to everyone so everyone can participate.”
The foursome is notorious for dancing in the crowd and bringing audience members on stage for energetic and interactive performances. We can hope for a lively show from the fresh-faced Californians at the Entry this Friday. Don’t get too excited for bumpin’ with the band, ladies — both Cam and Tim are committed to some fine felines back in the SoCal sunshine.
