Bacchae (Photo by Indie Jimenez)
You may have seen Bacchae on tour last year with rising young guitar stars The Linda Lindas! Now, Bacchae, a DC punk quartet, start this year with a solo show at Songbyrd Music House on Friday, Feb. 10.
Formed in 2016 by four friends with minimal experience as musicians, Bacchae make music with no assumptions about what a punk band should sound like. On their 2020 LP Pleasure Vision, brooding synth-driven pop sits alongside prickly, fast-paced punk and spooky post-punk sounds. Sometimes you get all of that in a single song. But whether the band is exploring the pain of a doomed relationship or the push and pull of disgust and desire while shopping online, what carries through it all is a sense of uncertainty, dissolution and dread.
Watch the official music video for “Dig” by Bacchae on YouTube:
Bacchae, pronounced “bock-eye,” can be described as post-punk, synth rock and heavy pop. Bacchae includes musicians Andrew Breiner on guitar, Katie McD on keys and vocals, Rena Hagins on bass and vocals, and Eileen O’Grady on drums.
Said Eileen: “We call ourselves Bacchae after the Euripedean tragedy of the same name. In the play, the bacchae are the femme followers of Dionysus who represent a rejection of traditional order and society. There’s something very appealing about their orgiastic and chaotic protest — retreating to the woods to dance and party among themselves and literally ripping apart a male trespasser, the King of Thebes.”
Bacchae
W/ Big Cry Country and BLKVAPOR
Songbyrd Music House
Friday, Feb. 10
Doors @ 7pm
$15
All ages