Bad Rabbits Invade Summer Touring Season

Those wascally Bad Rabbits from Boston have their own tour to do – a summer headlining romp supporting their new album dropping next week.  Launching the adventure on the east coast, destinations include Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Austin and D.C.

Having spent early 2013 as part of Karmaloop’s Verge Campus Tour with headliner Kendrick Lamar along with Steve Aoki and 5 & A Dime, Bad Rabbits is venturing forth in support of its new album, American Love, dropping May 14.

The band has also debuted a new single from the album.  Called “Doin’ It,” the video premiered on Idolator.com earlier this week.

You can check out the band while in the comfort of your own living room when Bad Rabbits hits national TV for the first time, appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” May 17.

Describing themselves as a “post-R&B” band that draws its influences from the spectrum of styles that have contributed to pop music over several decades, Bad Rabbits can rock with the best of them as well as lay down smooth-as-silk vocals backed by pure funk.  The band’s guitarist, Salim Akram, recently gave Pollstar a glimpse into what goes into Bad Rabbits’ music.

“Aesthetically, we’ve been calling the brand the ‘American Dream,’ but musically, if you put it in a box, we’ve kind of narrowed it down to post-R&B,” Akram said.  “We have some [more] rock elements on the new record. We used it to depict the live band a little more, like the rock heavier side of the band became more apparent than it was on (2009 EP) Stick Up Kids.”

While Bad Rabbits has a couple of upcoming May dates – May 10 in Lawrence, Kan., at The Bottleneck and May 25 in Boston at the Boston Calling Music Festival – the serious roadwork begins in July.  Here’s the routing:

July 9 – Nantucket, Mass., Chicken Box
July 10 – Nantucket, Mass., Chicken Box
July 15 – Buffalo, N.Y., The Waiting Room
July 16 – Pontiac, Mich., Pike Room
July 17 – Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Grog Shop
July 18 – Chicago, Ill., Subterranean
July 19 – St. Louis, Mo., Firebird
July 20 – Lawrence, Kan., Granada Theatre
July 22 – Denver, Colo., Summit Music Hall
July 23 – Salt Lake City, Utah, Bar Deluxe
July 25 – Seattle, Wash., Chop Suey
July 26 – Portland, Ore., Hawthorne Theatre
July 27 – San Francisco, Calif., Bottom Of The Hill
July 29 – West Hollywood, Calif., Troubadour
July 30 – San Diego, Calif., The Casbah
July 31 – Scottsdale, Ariz., Martini Ranch
Aug. 1 – Albuquerque, N.M., Launchpad
Aug. 2 – El Paso, Texas, Tricky Falls
Aug. 3 – Austin, Texas, Stubb’s Bar-B-Q / Waller Creek Amph.
Aug. 4 – Dallas, Texas, The Prophet Bar
Aug. 6 – Nashville, Tenn., Exit / In
Aug. 7 – Columbus, Ohio, The Basement
Aug. 8 – Washington, D.C., Rock And Roll Hotel
Aug. 9 – Pittsburgh, Pa., The Smiling Moose
Aug. 10 – Philadelphia, Pa., Union Transfer
Aug. 11 – Hampton Beach, N.H.  Wally’s Pub 

Photo: Jason Moore
Vans Warped Tour, Virginia Beach Amphitheater, Virginia Beach, Va.

Tickets go on sale May 10.  Visit BadRabbits.com for more information.