[Youtube] Bright And Dark Side live [2003]

BADS

Bright and Dark Side, man... these guys are great. I saw them at a New Years Show in 2003. It was on the 6th or 7th floor in this tall building. Supposedly it was a Community Center, it just seemed an odd place. The floor was like a large, open air office with a beautiful view out the windows and cubicles randomly placed around. Before the show we lounged on couches in the area, and I think there was even a kid's playspace somewhere. The show was in a large room with doors separating the hallway to it. At the end of the hallway were double door opening into another space, also being used to have a show. The overall space was weird, but super comfortable and spacious.

I met Ryuzaki (bass) when we stopped by his place before the Malaysia tour. I was with Yuichi (and maybe Ponchi?) and we went to his flat to pick up some patches. He had this small crafty contraption that was a weird screenprinting thing. Using one of his design, he'd screenprinted a pile of patches, and that's what we picked up. I don't remember much about his space except it was really clean and cool looking (kind of like his design). Later, as Gauge Means Nothing traded out members during 2004 and 2005, Kenchan (guitar) would play drums until the band disbanded. I think his only recorded contribution was on GMN's last song.

As for the sound, BADS plays this really percussive, jazzy emo. The songs can get really long (6-10 minutes), but just feel so right at that length that you can't complain. The vocals are no bullshit, screamed and yelled, just like they should be. It's just perfect, it's just right. Most bands have those embarrassing parts that just don't sound right, like they forgot what they were trying to do in the song, but each BADS track is perfectly crafted and everything just flows so smoothly together.

There isn't much in the way of recordings from BADS. I have a split cassette tape and they have one song on the second volume of the "Here Comes the Bottom Line" compilation series from Impulse records (buy it from me here), but that's all that I know of, unfortunately. There's been talk about a full-length or EP coming out from them sometime. It's still listed as a pending release from Endless/Nameless Collective. I hope it sees the light of day eventually, because there are some great songs they've created that deserve a good recording.

Hope you like these videos!