For a rock adventure, sail out to Bad Island

When Joe Hartell was a little boy, he threw all his toys out of his second-floor bedroom window. His dad was understandably irritated.

“My father told me that he was going to take me down to the docks, and they were going to pick me up and take me to the Bad Island, where they take the bad boys,” said Hartell, now 24. “I guess that stuck with me.”

Bad Island isn’t a real place, but it is a band, and Hartell is its tight-pants-wearing, Iggy Pop-channeling frontman. The five-piece trades in heavy, raw punk rock, and they’re playing at the A.D.D. Hootenanny from 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday at Ofelia’s Arte Fino Gallery on Central Street in Bangor.

Hartell and guitarist Ben Moors met last summer and immediately hit it off, quickly realizing that they’re two sides of the same coin. Hartell’s the rock ‘n’ roll id, if you will, while Moors is the ego.

“He’s taught me so much about music,” said Hartell. “I think he feeds off my creativity, and I feed off his musical knowledge. He’s a natural teacher.”

Moors loves the opportunity to keep it simple, stupid; though that’s not to say that all Bad Island does is play three-chord punk. Far from it – Moors frequently launches into Sonic Youth-esque guitar freakouts, while the band’s powerful drummer, Justus Magee, almost needs a fifth limb in order to keep up with his own crazy internal metronome.

“It feels a lot looser to me. There’s a lot less pretense,” said Moors. “It’s just about going out there and doing it and having a good time and getting fired up. I love it.”

The final lineup solidified earlier this year, and consists of Hartell, Moors, Magee, the tattooed babe and co-guitarist Alisha Goss, and dapper bass player and backing vocalist Matthew Chabe, all from Bangor.

In a recent development, however, Saturday’s show will be the last with Chabe, as he’s leaving the band to pursue a solo project – so Bad Island needs a new bass player.

Once you see Bad Island live, you’ll know that Hartell was meant to sing in a band. Whether he was born with his wild Mick Jagger-on-speed moves, or he learned them from practicing in front of a mirror, he’s got it, in addition to his snarling garage-band vocals.

“I go into a trance when I’m performing. I go to a different place. It’s weird, after I perform I have a hard time even talking and making any sense. It’s a huge expulsion of energy for me,” he said. “It seems like when I’m not creating I can be self-destructive. If I’m not putting my energy elsewhere it can be bad.”

In that sense, Bad Island is more than just a cute story from Hartell’s childhood.

“I think Bad Island’s kind of a metaphor,” said Hartell. “Islands are prisons people create for themselves. Addictions, eating disorders, exercise routines, whatever. I like to say that we are good people from a bad island.”

Bad Island will play at the A.D.D. Hootenanny, set for 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday, June 23, at Ofelia’s Arte Fino Gallery on Central Street in Bangor. Other bands scheduled to play are 1800s Sea Monster, Wood Burning Cat, the High Heels, Skulking and the Quasi-Men. For more info about Bad Island, visit www.myspace.com/thebadisland. Emily Burnham can be reached at eburnham@bangordailynews.net; she also writes about local music, nightlife, pop culture and more at RockBlogster, online at www.community.bangordailynews.com.