Bad Waitress

New Album In The Hollow OUT NOW!
Limited edition colour vinyl HERE

Bad Waitress have always sounded a little dangerous around the edges. There’s L7 and Babes In Toyland in the abrasion, the nervous art-punk electricity of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and some of the heavier post-punk pull of METZ and Fugazi, but the collision has always belonged to them. Kali-Ann Butala, Katelyn Molgard, Moon and Nicole Cain make punk that can feel playful one second and vaguely threatening the next, guitars scraping against a punishing rhythm section while Butala moves between melody, sneer and something closer to a warning.

That tension was forged in Toronto’s punk underground, where Bad Waitress built their reputation in sweaty rooms with very little distance between band and audience. Since emerging with 2018’s Party Bangers: Volume 1 and pushing into heavier territory on 2021’s No Taste, they’ve carried that energy well beyond the city, sharing stages with Fucked Up, L7, Rise Against, Wolf Parade and The Bronx. Along the way, their jagged take on punk has earned comparisons to The Stooges, Fugazi and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, with New Noise Magazine calling it an “all-out punk assault” and Exclaim! describing their evolution as “a new type of rage.”

For a band whose music has always thrived on confrontation, there’s something fitting about turning some of that fight inward. Bad Waitress haven’t come back after five years sounding cleaner, calmer or particularly interested in resolution. They’ve simply found new places to put the unease.