A night with Badflower at San Diego’s Observatory North Park

Badflower played a rare San Diego show at the North Park Observatory on October 17th! They don’t play in San Diego that often, so it was a pretty special show, with support from Dead Poet Society and Teenage Wrist. Dead Poet Society has a really unique sound that I really dig! They mostly played songs from their newest album, but played one song, “Lo Air”, that’s from an older release. And, Teenage Wrist just has a really good vibe about them! They played a lot of their songs from their latest album, Earth Is A Blackhole, like “High Again,” “Yellowbelly,” “Silverspoon” and closing out their set with hit and album title track, “Earth Is A Blackhole”.

Before Badflower took the stage, we were all welcomed by a talking umbrella named Karen!

She was basically just like Siri and told us we could ask for things like, “What’s the weather like right now? How much Badflower merch should I buy tonight? Karen, I would like to speak to the manager.” To officially start off the show she said, “If you would like to see the Badflower show, just say ‘yes’.” Then the crowd screams and chants, “YES!” She goes, “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. If you would like to see the Badflower show, just say ‘fuck yes’.” The crowd screamed once again. Just like any other Siri, she said, “I’m having trouble understanding you.” Once again she says, “If you’re ready to start the Badflower show, just say ‘start the show’.” The crowd screamed, “Start the show!!” Only for Siri to retort, “OK, getting driving directions to Starbucks.” One last time she says, “If you would like to start the Badflower show, just say ‘HOOOYAAAA'”. The crowd gave her a “HOYAAA” and the countdown FINALLY began! 

Badflower opened their set by playing “Fukboi”; that’s from their new album, This is How The World Ends, which got the crowd super hyped and ready for the rest of the night. The crowd may have been small, but they were mighty! The crowd was so loud like that place was packed! The smaller-sized crowd gave lead singer Josh Katz the opportunity to personally talk to fans and have mini conversations with them. Immediately after the first song, some people on the rail were asking Josh for a pick. He was like, “You want a pick? Already?” and laughingly said, “Y’all are greedy”. He threw a couple of picks out and, at the same time, another girl threw her hat up onstage. Josh picked it up and put it on and the girl was like, “OMG, he’s wearing my hat!” Josh wearing different people’s hats was definitely the theme of the night.

The band went absolutely nuts midway through their set when they played “Stalker”.

Katz was running up and down the photo pit, handing the mic to some fans to hold as he was singing. He jumped back onstage for that last chorus, as the lights went crazy and the band ran and danced all over the stage. It was a very entertaining song to watch!

The ‘last’ song they played was “Ghost”, a song that personally helped me get through a lot of shit. You may think you’re alone in a situation, but then you hear songs like this that say “no you’re not, I feel you”. I have a lot of respect for Badflower for being so vulnerable in their songs and talking about these darker topics; it helps bring light to these issues and resonates with people on such a deeper level. They came back out for an encore and closed their set with a beautiful half acoustic song called “My Funeral” that left the crowd feeling positive and grateful for life! Overall, it was such an amazing night and I already can’t wait for Badflower to return back to San Diego!

Photography by Kaiya Vandemark

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