I saw Sleater-Kinney last night at Roseland. SK is a 3-piece, all-female band (2 guitarists and a drummer). I’ve only heard a few of their songs but wanted to see them since it would be my first time seeing an all-female rock group. I met up with my two bandmates who are big fans of them. The crowd was quite eclectic –the entire lesbian community of Manhattan was in attendance mixed in with a few professionals, lots of college kids, and a few hipsters. We sneaked our way to the front of the stage (which was a feat since Roseland is a big hall and there were tons of people) and were able to get an excellent view. The show was really dynamic. The guitarist Carrie and drummer Janet were amazing!
Sleater-Kinney: Carrie and Corin
Carrie with Janet in background...
Corin...
Loved their energy! The best part of the show for me was when they came back for a second encore and played a cover of Danzig’s “Mother.” Kick-ass!!! I love that song! In short, despite my lack of knowledge about their songs, I had a good time. It was great to see an all-female band rock out on stage. Which brings me to the following point…
Why aren’t that many female rock bands out there? I don’t mean just female rock singers (e.g., Pat Benatar, Alanis, Sheryl Crow, Siouxie, etc.) My point is, throughout musical history, there has only been a handful of influential female/mostly-female bands out there. Sure, there are a lot of popular female-fronted bands (e.g., No Doubt; Garbage; Blondie, etc.), but there’s really no female supergroup that comes to mind.
Here’s a few popular groups that have been an integral part of rock history: The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, U2, R.E.M., The Beatles, Aerosmith…the list goes on and on and on. Here are the female groups that are only slightly comparable: The Go-Go’s and The Bangles. There’s really not a lot of female rockers out there that have made it big.
I’m not trying to plug that there should be more female bands vs. male bands. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish that more female musicians out there would become successful (i.e., mainstream) so that more bands would consist of not just male musicians.
Despite this little tirade of mine, I for one don’t really classify bands in terms of gender. If they happen to be female, that's fine. It just so happens that almost all of the bands I like happen to be all-male or mostly male.
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By the way, here's a picture of my newest tattoo:
Song of the Day:
The Magnificent Seven by The Clash
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