Fake French presented an afternoon of gender neutral rock and roll at ABC No Rio Saturday afternoon. Outside, it was damp and drizzly, inside it was similar only colder but it warned up as young girls, and some boys, filled the room in support of music by all female, mostly lesbian musicians. "Friends playing music for friends" somebody suggested to me though that suggests a level of amateur that the music sidestepped. (Authors note: Subsequent to posting this "Fake Friends" complained about me equating lesbian friends with amateur: that wasn't my intention)
Fake French "books female-fronted feminist DIY shows in NYC" it sez here, "No booze + no drugs = no cops in our space. This show is a safer space. No racism, sexism, transphobia, or homophobia will be tolerated.The bathroom at ABC No Rio is gender-neutral.". Also no heat and no seats I can get to but the audience mostly friends and band members, are having fun cheering on the three bands plus Claire's Diary (who I reviewed here).
Conceptually, three of the bands have no real feminist politics, it is fairly implicit in the music, but two of the bands are very gender neutral, only one band brings up a boiling anger. This is actually a good thing. It is good these folks at least take the pro-gender bending as a given. Back in the Rock Against Sexism late 1970s, Jam Today (A reference to the menstrual cycle) refused to play in front of men and the Au Pairs (they sounded like a more melodic Gang Of Four) raged relentless against sexism. In an age where the Half The Sky Foundation are fighting to save two million pre-teen girls enslaved in prostitution, Chinese people put to death female babies because of the Government's one child per family laws, and the Web has unleashed child pornography and appears just about unstoppable,what can be more positive then the freedom to just be yourself.
Certainly the first two acts, Kelly Montoya's girl and her guitar and Tiny Tusks butch dykes go emo rock, simply do what they do and do it very well. Kelly takes the floor (no elevated stage) with just a guitar and capon and played half an hour of superb, gender neutral, songs about love going right and wrong. And if it had been 20 minutes, she would have stolen the evening from under Clare's Diary's nose.
Kelly Montoyo's lyrics are a bit prosaic and half an hour of mostly acoustic guitar rock songs can get a little samey but Kelly can sure write a good song and never forgets to put a hook in the mix somewhere. She had me with the second song "New Year's Eve In Brooklyn" with its time bending final verse and breathless desire and kept me with the "written last week" "Don't Be Sad" and its sharp refrain "I wanna wake up in the morning feeling fresh and reborn". A very very good songwriter -or did I already say that?
Tiny Tusks would be just another really good rock band singing love songs if it wasn't for the lead singer, Natalie, who has a terrific rock and roll voice which hits hard and remains tough and melodic for a fine half hour set. Despite it being so cold the bassist Sabrina had to stick her hands in her pockets to keep them warm between songs. The songs are smart little seductions, "Come on over, the light's on" they purr in one song, "I've got no regrets, I just stay in bed" and drummer Lauren hammers it all back home.
TinVulva were promoting a seven inch single, "That's my wife selling them" said lead singer Sarah Soller-Mihlek who along with Kat Wong on drums and Vanessa Rondon on guitar make up the only openly feminist band this night. They make a wall of music and they roar through the guitars spitting out songs of anger and defiance if not exactly melody. You can get their first album here with my blessing: http://tinvulva.com/
Claire's Diary closed up the afternoon with a terrific half hour set, and Fake French can take pride in the organization and also booking four diverse but excellent most Girl rock bands (Authors Note: "Fake Friends" also complained of my girl group comment: "way problematic review dude". If they had been all male bands would I have noted it?" Perhaps not. But if they had been all gay bands I would have) in a scintillating and well made three hours of great music. Enough to make you want to form a band and change the world.
Grade: B+