Bad//Dreems Creates A Diverse Punk Rock Maelstrom To Revisit Debut Album

Last Friday night – just before midnight – I found myself dazed and deep in the subterranean cave of Mary’s Underground. Around me, bodies – as exhausted as my own – were either crumbled in chairs, gasping over water stations, or swaying in the queue for merch: the aftermath of the maelstrom orchestrated by the punk rock outfit, Bad//Dreems.

For the past hour, the iconic Adelaide band had dragged me and the heaving audience back ten years to when they first began. Shoulders had locked with shoulders, bodies had spilled onto stage, and band members had climbed down into the waves to join us, summoning the raucous energy of the crowd and injecting it into their loud, infectious, riff-heavy music.

For the first time since forming, Bad//Dreems had just played the entirety of their revered debut album – Dogs at Bay.

After this performance, I had stumbled to a table outside the venue’s dressing room. Here, I had sat waiting in a daze until I was joined by a man hugely responsible for the evening’s time-travelling magic trick – guitarist and songwriter, Alex Cameron.

Leading me through the organs of the venue – into the winding green room, and out to a stairwell where we could talk in silence – I was struck by the calm energy of Cameron and how it contrasted with what I had experienced.

He seemed at ease in the silence as he lounged against the stairwell wall – as if he had left his punk rock identity behind in the sweat-soaked room. The first thing he told me was that he had no idea if the performance had been a success.

Being the first stop on their nationwide tour of Dogs at Bay he was still sceptical of the quality of the old songs.

“It’s like going back and sitting Year Two exams when you’re in Year 12,” he laughed. “We were pretty raw back when we first wrote these songs. We’ve gotten a lot more competent since then.”

This apprehension was unfounded though. As the band had performed the 2015 album in its original sequence, their learned competence had clearly only given new life to the older tracks.

With searing fan favourites, such as Cuffed & Collared and Dumb Ideas contrasted with lesser-known acoustic lead tracks such as Paradise and Blood in My Eyes, the band had expertly shown how far they had come over the last ten years.

Giving credit to these lesser known tracks, Cameron admitted that in revisiting the album he had appreciated the chance to reflect on lyrics he had initially disregarded.

“There are some lyrics that I will write that are quite intentional. And then there are others that 10 years ago, I would have said, ‘I just kind of made some shit up,'” he explains.

“What’s interesting is to look back on those lyrics and see that they probably did have a great deal of meaning. I think some of the better lyrics are those ones, where at the time I kind of thought there was not much to them, but now — with 10 years’ hindsight — I can understand what they actually mean.”

Yet, despite the magic laced through their rendition of Dogs at Bay, the true adoration of the audience could be felt toward the end of the set.

As the band concluded the night with a string of their most popular songs from throughout the decade, friends and strangers were united by the ability to belt the same beloved words in unison.

There was a political urgency to these songs not quite as present in their older music. A sign of how the band’s songwriting has evolved to represent more than just their own lives – but broader Australians too.

“Local and Australian music is important, because that’s the way our stories get told,” Alex told me when I mentioned this to him. “It’s great 100,000 people go and watch Taylor Swift, but you still want to be able to come and see different people that you rub shoulders with and exchange culture on a smaller level… Which is, I guess, what drives us to continue doing it.”

There was a selflessness in this sentiment that I found moving. Since releasing Dogs at Bay, Bad//Dreems had not written or played their music for glitz and glamour but instead to bring a diverse community together under the same Australian punk rock banner.

That night, in the pit of Mary’s Underground, ten years of devotion to this banner had erupted throughout the ecstatic crowd. With my fist in the air, and lyrics on my tongue – it was a privilege to be a part of it.