If everyone in the room at an L7 concert was put in charge of doing stuff I’m sure the country would be in far better shape. There’s such diversity in the crowd it’s like a snapshot of street life. So many who have seen the band before like me, and so many L7 virgins. Everyone here is buzzing before the band has emerged and The Rosemount is packed to the rafters.
Coming out to a patchwork of sounds straddling Wagner to Nirvana watching L7 take the stage is surprisingly moving. The band, who put out one of the most essential albums of the early 90’s, that we get to hear tonight, look and sound great. It’s like 30 years are wiped away as soon as I see them hit the stage and there’s so much eagerness, so much positive energy in the room, it you could bottle this atmosphere you’d have the cure to all ills!
When I spoke to Donita earlier in the year she mentioned the challenges of playing the record in order with the fury of the bookend tracks: ‘Wargasm’ is a tough one to do live, in fact we had retired it in 1992 because I sing in a very low register on that song, it’s hard to project it vocally, there’s a lot of changes, there’s a lot of half steps, there’s a lot of down-stroking, eighth-notes, and it’s played very quickly. (and) ‘This Ain’t Pleasure’ which we had never played live before, and that’s also a barnstormer. So we start and finish with the two fastest songs on the record!”
I have that going round my head when the first note is struck and ‘Wargasm’ sounds just like I hoped it would! There’s so much shoehorned into that one song the crowd is jumping in unison. ‘Bricks Are Heavy’ celebrated its 31st Anniversary in 2023 and these are the last of the anniversary concerts and it’s certainly been worth the wait.
I’m reminded of Donita’s musings on wishing they could have done an all ages show as there are certainly a lot of younger fans in the crowd, the two I talk to got into the band through their Auntie who is there with them tonight but on the barrier! Whilst they take it easy mid room!
Three songs in we get to the song that most are here to hear ‘Pretend We’re Dead’ and it comes with a warning “Normally you leave your biggest hit till last, so lock the doors” Donita adds “If we see you leave we will hunt you down!” Few bands could pull that off of course but in a show like this with all the old school Punk aggression and Metal edge anything seems possible. It might get a huge roar, but so much does tonight.
Back in the day this old rocker saw L7 open for Nirvana and a year later for Faith No More and they always captivated me, and still manage to tonight after a gap of almost three decades. Back in the day they seemed so fresh, like The Runaways with flick-knives (and way better songs), like a Pistols with more attitude or a West Coast statutory successor to the New York Dolls , but dirtier, less Glam, and more Punk…
As the album settles in the humor comes to the fore – there’s great introductions to the songs, Donita’s insistence in making a point of adding “Western Australia” every time she says the word “Perth” and Jennifer referring to Donita’s guitar as a ‘Flying Vagina’ (I always wondered what the ‘V’ stood for)! And in between it the album that defined the band sounds as fresh as it did all those years ago. And it is of course great to see it all delivered by the ‘classic’ line-up.
By the end of ‘Bricks Are Heavy’ there’s a huge applause from the room, part for the band, part for the feat of pulling it off and part, you feel, because the band now has freedom to do what the fuck they like with the rest of the show! “Now we can do what we want” Jennifer tells the room to which Donita suggests (I hope only half-jokingly) “Prince’s Deep Cuts, the ones that didn’t make the records”.
Thankfully we get more L7, and I’ll wager a bunch of songs just as good as ‘Pretend We’re Dead and ‘Shitlist’! When you have 7 albums to choose from and have chalked off one there’s plenty left to fill the night. The best thing is that we all know those other songs whether they come from the more familiar 90’s output like ‘Andres’ and ‘Fuel My Fire’ from Hungry for the Stink or the newer, fresher ‘Stadium West’ or ‘Fighting the Crave’ from ‘Scatter the Rats’ (my only mild disappointment being there’s no ‘Burn Baby’ from that record).
We close with the always relevant cover of Eddie and the Subtitles ‘American Society’ and a pre-Bricks gem in the crushing ‘Fast and Frightening’.
God I wish all gigs smelt like this! I wish all gigs tasted like this, and man I wish every show I saw had this atmosphere where no matter who you are, no matter what age, what gender or what you dressed of looked like, you were welcome.
Thanks to L7 and Metropolis Touring.
All images by Shotweiler Photography.
More images to come…