Recommending music is tough sometimes. Mention a band that sounds like Blue Öyster Cult and Def Leppard jamming at Stonehenge and your indie-rock friends are liable to roll their eyes so deep into the backs of their skulls that you need a melon-baller to show them the light. Perhaps this is why Bat Fangs, D.C.’s favorite glam metal revival band, haven’t really popped off outside the District. But that’s a shame. Bat Fangs (composed of Flesh Wounds’ Laura King on drums and Ex Hex bassist Betsy Wright on guitar) dropped their self-titled album in 2018, introducing the D.C. scene to their unique take on the heavy metal and glam rock of the ’70s and ’80s while eschewing those genres’ toxicity and artificiality. The layer of treacly nostalgia or irony you might expect this sort of band to gloss their sound with isn’t there. Bat Fangs aren’t an homage or a parody. They’re an experiment in pop culture vampirism. What if these things from a previous decade—that many now see as largely meritless—actually have some creative juice left in it? And what would it look like if that juice was extracted by talented musicians in the context of a contemporary music scene? Their new album, Queen of My World, trades in the cauldron-black aesthetic of their 2018 debut for a white-as-lightning, high-fantasy vibe. The band’s bio on the website for Don Giovanni Records (the label they share with the likes of Screaming Females and Laura Stevenson) describes their music as “slick and sick visions channeled from the midnight mirror world. Acid-soaked hard-rock to thrill the living and raise the dead.” If that doesn’t sound appealing, well, listen to The 1975 and enjoy your pour-overs, indie dweebs. Bat Fangs play along with the Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis at 8 p.m. on March 18 at the Black Cat. blackcatdc.com. $20–$22.
Bat Fangs
