Bridgette Calls Me Baby

One Liner: 'member The Smiths? I 'member...
Wikipedia Genre: Pop rock, alternative rock
Home: Chicago

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 8
Day: ???
Both Weekends.

[location].

Thoughts:  Fascinating.  Over the years, there have been a lot of throwback 80's sounds, but I can't recall one off the top of my head that is so distinct.  These dudes sound exactly like The Smiths.  Well, I say that as someone who just sorta knows the hits from the Smiths.  I am not a deeply rooted Smiths connoisseur, so maybe this just sounds like what a Casual Smiths Guy thinks the Smiths sound like?  I am so intrigued as to why someone would make music like this in 2026.  Also, the song that just came on sounds like Orville Peck.  And his voice can also sound like Brandon Flowers at times.  Those two should take the stage together and blow minds.

The lead singer, Wes Leavins, says that the name for the band comes from a pen-pal relationship he had with French film star Bridgette Bardot when he was in high school.  That is so weird, it is bound to be true, but how odd.  Was she really writing him back, or does she have an agent who handles that?  What in the world did they talk about?  Anyway, the lead singer grew up in Texas, but then moved to Chicago to star as Elvis in a musical called Million Dollar Quartet, which "stars" Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash.  Odd quartet, in my opinion.  But, that job got him noticed by Baz Luhrmann and he was going to be the voice of Elvis in the 2022 biopic (which I thought kind of sucked) until Baz realized that Austin Butler could do the voice.  Initially, Wes had a band called Juvenescent, and some of those band members came over to BCMB.  Since then, they have opened for Muse and, in a perfect circle moment, Morissey.

Two albums - 2024's The Future is Our Way Out and 2026's Irreversible.  No songs have more than 2 million streams, so the Morissey-style crooning is not catching on with the hip kids.  Top streamer is "We Were Never Alive" from the first disc.  1.5 million streams.

Loogit the hair on that synth player!  Impressive.  Funny that a dude from Texas could sound a smidge British like that as he croons.  On the new disc, I kind of like the instrumentation of some of the songs, for example, the guitar jangle in "The Early Days of Love" makes me think of early REM (with Morrisey singing...).  The top track on that disc is "Slumber Party" with 1.2 million streams.

Interesting, at least to me, that their most streamed songs are the ones that go harder on the instrumentation.  Not like hard rock or anything, but both of these more streamed songs are definitely danceable rock.  Versus that jangly cruiser I mentioned above that has 97k streams.

I doubt I would do this show, but it could be the best option we have?