It can be argued that there was a time and place for all of the riot grrrl-esque bands of the world, and that would have been primarily in the early 1990s in the Pacific Northwest with groups such as Bikini Kill and L7, but the all-female band lineup on Friday, February 10th in Austin, TX at Barracuda was a welcomed resurgence.
Opening for Atlanta-based punk rioters The Coathangers were Austin-based all-female punk band, Sailor Poon. Sailor Poon, having just recently returned from a nearly three-week national tour, sounded cohesive and brought a fury of raunchy feminist anthems with songs such as “Daddy Issues” and “Something Smells.” We loved it.
Now entering their eleventh year as a band, The Coathangers are currently halfway through a two-month national tour, in support of their 2016 full release, Nosebleed Weekend. The light-heartedness of the band’s power-trio sound coupled with songs that change time-signatures several times, such as “Hurricane”, made the 50-minute set seem to fly by as fast as all the crowd surfing in the low-ceiling dark club.
With songs “Perfume” and “Burn Me,” there were parallels to late-‘70s/early ‘80s all-female rock band, The Go-Go’s (author side note: Go-Go’s guitar player Kathy Valentine is an Austin resident), and at times when drummer/vocalist Stephanie Luke sang (and drummed at the same time); vibes of ‘90s grunge band, Nirvana.
The diverse, nearly sold-out crowd fueled the band’s high energy set and kept the band going with furor into a short encore. With all three members of the band being overly talented musicians – having the ability to switch instruments and lead vocals flawlessly from song to song – it’s not difficult to imagine the women playing larger festivals with later appearances on the bill in 2017.
