Bad Image Keeps Punk Dangerous With an Eight-Foot Chain

Hardcore punk is participatory. A typical concert involves a series of stage-diving, moshing, fight-dancing and crowdsourced vocals. Naturally, such audience and artist behavior makes the scene a little more dangerous — and painful, if you’re not careful — than, say, a Josh Groban concert.

But that also makes it attractive. An element of unexpected danger keeps everyone on the edge and makes for a heedful herd.

That’s why Jaedyn Navarrette, the vocalist for furious Seattle four-piece Bad Image, decided to add an eight-foot chain to her on-stage arsenal.

“I’m one for props and a little bit of danger, just to keep it fun,” she says, adding that having “a chain in your face” helps get the band’s point across a little more, too.

“It enhances our message because you can tell I’m angry and I’m talking about worldly topics,” she continues. “But when I have a chain, it really adds an element of shock and danger. People pay attention more.”
Or at least, they'd better, because Bad Image isn’t fucking around. Pulling from American punk originators such as Bad Brains and Black Flag, Navarrette, Matt Nelms (guitar), Dayton Griggs (bass) and Richie Luna (drums) are pissed off and proud of it. The group’s self-titled debut EP, released in 2022, aptly starts with “Chained,” on which Navarette screams, “You will get what’s coming to you” — a rallying cry (or warning shot) that sets the tone for the EP's head-spinning four-song, seven-minute run time.

“We’re all over the place with our influences,” Navarrette says. “I started the band thinking I was going to do really classic punk, like from the ’70s, but we also really like ’80s hardcore.”

She points to Bad Brains as the main reason that she and her partner, Nelms, initially started Bad Image while still living in Phoenix in 2019, before moving up to the Coffee Capital of the World and teaming up with Griggs and Luna.

“That was my favorite band and definitely Matt’s, too, so we were like, ‘Yeah, we should start a punk band,’” adds Navarrette, who is tattooed with a Bad Brains lightning bolt, “P.M.A.” and “Rise Above” along her right arm. “It’s just a really classic ’70s punk-hardcore band that we want to go for.”

Thanks to local label Convulse Records, Bad Image is set to make its Denver debut on Wednesday, April 17, at D3 Arts. Local openers Merry, Burden Jim and Luna’s are also on the bill.

With spiked elbow pads and a studded black leather bra, Navarrette and her trusty chain are ready. She credits Wendy O. Williams, whip-wielding lead singer of Plasmatics, for her fiery flair.

“Wendy O. Williams for everything — vocals, fashion. She’s definitely the best to do it,” she says. “I love taking some ideas from her in terms of fashion sense, for sure.”

Another Wendy O. stunt Bad Image may premiere at some point is hacking a guitar in half with a chainsaw during a set.

“That’s actually in the works,” Navarrette explains. “We were thinking about doing that, but we weren’t playing anywhere outside, and I didn’t want to poison anyone.” She giggles at the thought.

Until then, Bad Image is readying to release a five-song EP, Songs From a Dystopian Future, sometime this month (check the band’s Instagram for updates). It’s a “darker, twisted sound” that addresses the sad state of the world more than the group’s previous output, according to Navarrette.
“It’s a little heavier, more of a DIY sound than our last album,” she says. “Matt and I were just feeling the pressure of the world right now and all of the injustice, so it’s definitely topics about that. I feel like the music complements that as well.

“There’s just so much shit happening that we can all relate to. Everyone’s feeling everything going downhill, so this is about more world-scale issues.”

As the group drives from Spokane, the first stop on the current Midwest run, Navarrette adds that she’s always felt like a “natural performer.”

“Even when I was little, I was really shy, but I liked to dance and sing for people, so starting the band was a no-brainer for me,” she explains. “I wasn’t the greatest at first, but I have the confidence to go full into it. As time goes on, I get much better at performing.”

In talking, Navarrette is nothing but polite and pleasant. She definitely doesn’t give off unhinged-Mad Max-character-turned-punk-singer vibes. Fronting Bad Image is a means of expression for Navarrette, and by extension, her bandmates.

“People will say I’m two different people. In real life, I’m pretty chill, very nice and calm. On stage, that’s my outlet to let it all out, go crazy, get my message out there,” she says. “I always say, ‘I have the mic, so you’re going to listen to what I’m saying.’ I’m going to just scream my head off and get it out. That keeps me sane. It’s fun.”

And the more she screams and antagonizes fans in the crowd, the more they respond to what Bad Image is doing.

“That’s fun to watch as well,” Navarrette concludes.

Bad Image, 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, D3 Arts, 3614 Morrison Road. Tickets are $12 at the door.