We have a soft spot for Bad Breeding, and I – as your humble scribe – find myself here doing a fourth write up for the Stevenage-based four piece. With a few false starts (a pandemic, illness etc) under their belts, and one explosive Roadburn performance to their name, we’re chuffed to be welcoming Bad Breeding back to the festival this April.
With each year, and each write up penned about Bad Breeding, the world around us seems to have decayed further – lending an increasing urgency to their sonic memorandums. Embodying a true crust-punk attitude – they draw influence from the likes of Crass – Bad Breeding spit, snarl and unflinchingly speak truth to power. Having picked up the baton from their anarcho-punk forefathers and run with it, Bad Breeding show no signs of fatigue from showing up over and over again to decry injustice, documenting the failures of neoliberalism, and putting in a shift to sketch the map out of here.
If all you have in you is the desire to heed the call towards community, you will be welcomed with open arms. If you seek more – an urge to learn, to resist, to forge a new path – Bad Breeding will illuminate the path.
Bad Breeding will also be doing double duty at Roadburn this year. The band will also play at our traditional pre-fest show on Wednesday night at The Spark. Their frenetic live energy is the perfect way to round out the night, but as if that wasn’t enough they’ll be treating us to a special show too. This set will consist of a full play though of their 2024 album, Contempt. If life’s got you seething and roiling in discomfort, Bad Breeding’s angular punk will give you a way to let off some steam and purge those feelings.
– Becky Laverty
