‘I was listening to a lot of Jeff Buckley when I wrote this song’, said Nina Diaz before singing ‘Sly’, 'I think he still exists somewhere, call me crazy!’
And that was a sort of revelation for me, as I hadn’t thought about Buckley at all during the beginning of Girl in a Coma's set at the Echoplex on Friday night, but yes, there was a little of Buckley in that slow guitar introduction expanding in a lush and ascending ballad dominated by Diaz powerful vocals. And it was not the only song that brought Buckley in my mind.
As I was hearing a lot of ‘I love you Nina’, ‘I adore you’, the Girl in a coma frontwoman and her great voice, was the center of attraction of the adoring very-lesbian crowd (at least, where I was located), the fact that drummer Phanie Diaz and bass player Jenn Alva are both openly lesbian was certainly a real sex-appeal for this kind of crowd, but I would hate for Girl in a Coma to be pigeonholed that way!
Charming Nina looked a little bit like The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs, all wide-rolling eyes with an expressive face when she was going from one high note to another high one, with a total assurance and some badass energy. Her hair in her face, soon covered by sweat, she was in control of her voice and music, letting however the drum and the bass pulling the music forward on some songs, like for the very catchy, explosive and opening song ‘One Eyed Fool’, where her numerous ooh-oohs worked like another rhythm section. She had a lot of these oohs or aahs, but the music was actually quite diverse, alternating between aggressive tunes with soaring and angry vocals, to tender and quieter ballads,… Diaz was screaming, roaring and yelling, then begging and longing, with a nervous delivery, her versatile voice pushed from some raucous range potentially ready to do some damages to some sweeter sides.
Many songs were from their recently released album ‘Exits and All the Rest’, and if a lot of them had a poppy melody, I realized how large their range was when they played ‘Adjust', slowly building up a dangerous atmosphere with abrupt outbursts, and ruminating some delayed explosion, or ‘Hope’, an unleashed aggressive galloping number that they dedicated to the fight against the new immigrations laws in Arizona and Alabama, or ‘Control’ that she sang with a sort of Joan Jett/Christie Hynde’s strong-personality delivery, while going into the high notes.
But the three girls also showed their tender side with quieter anthems that triggered a few singalongs like during the ultimate love declaration of ‘El Monte’ (I want to wash all of your clothes/And make you feel warm when you're cold/And scratch you when you've got an itch/I do, I do, I do, I do/I do, I do, I do, I do/Want to marry you), that visibly resonated true for everyone with its sweet slightly latino guitars.
They also played their terrific cover of George Harrison’s ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, from their 'Adventures in Coverland' album, and had to come back for an encore with, among others, a Cumbia-rhythm song in Spanish, their cover of Selena’ s ‘Si Una Vez’, which even started the beginning of a mosh pit!
The Echoplex was packed and their catchy rock anthems delivered with rage and their mighty girl power even triggered a few stage dives, ‘Be careful!’ said Nina.
The San Antonio trio, Joan Jett’s protégés and Morrissey-lovers (their moniker was chosen after ‘Girlfriend in a coma’) were visibly at the top of their game, offering their multi-faceted but totally accessible music to the enthusiastic crowd,… and enthusiastic was not even close to what was going on, it was a love fest,… these girls may well be very big soon!
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