By Jenny Case
Actually I don’t know what had been created, but a couple thousand years later He gave us L7. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there have been sightings of an all female band that actually can rock. Clad in flannels and jeans, they call themselves L7 and not only are they anti-lipstick and hairspray, but they can actually play their instruments.
They’re the first all-girl band, as the L.A. Times put it, “to sing as if their sex were irrelevant.” Their latest album “Bricks Are Heavy” (follow-up to 1990’s “Smell The Magic”) is a great, sometimes brilliant hard rock masterpiece. And in case this does not impress you, just wait until you see them play live! They’re absolutely killer. Their most recent appearance in Minneapolis was a drunk show at First Ave (the same night Ozzy was at the Target Center). To my surprise, it was a full house and one of the wildest performances I’ve ever seen.
A notable characteristic of L7 is Miss Donita Sparks, guitarist/vocalist. Odd is not the word to describe her, rather – moody, unpredictable and man-like. One instance when they were playing, Donita got so angry that she removed her “sanitary garment” and threw it at the audience, as if to answer anyone questioning her “female-ness.” Earlier this year at one of their Entry shows here, she jumped into the crowd and when she got back on stage announced that someone had grabbed her and given her a gnarly “feminine-type” infection…
This is all a part of a feminist movement if you ask me, with these girls ready to stomp out all their female counterparts (Babes in Toyland, Bikinikill, No Man’s Land, Lita Ford, etc.) in an effort to be taken seriously, no bombshells holding them back. It’s all sheer aggression, only from a different perspective than maybe we’re all used to. But you had better get used to it because this is just the beginning.