Girls That Shred: 3rd Annual Benefit for Skate Like A Girl
Featuring: Dude York, Ever-So-Android, Mommy Long Legs, and Gutless
Vera Project, Seattle, WA
01.15.16
There’s a lobby full of skater-girls. And boys. And donuts. Kids and adults alike are roaming The Vera Project with arms-length strands of raffle tickets, all in support of Skate Like A Girl. For their 3rd Annual Girls That Shred benefit show, the lineup shone with local stars. Four bands, with some especially strong female shredders, knocked it out of the park.
We kicked things off with the all-star lineup of Gutless, featuring Lisa Prank, Julia Shapiro (Childbirth & Chastity Belt), and Bree McKenna (Childbirth & Tacocat). “Thanks for having us,” they opened with, “We’re a jock band.” According to Prank’s Facebook page “Every 6 months my friendship bracelet twee band Gutless… plays a show…! Come hear our songs about missed connections & Myspace & 90s time traveler John Titor!” And frankly, that’s exactly what they delivered on. Clad in brightly patterned leggings – think florals and emojis – and basketball jerseys with matching lipstick, the effervescent ladies strummed out catchy tunes with surf-rock flair. They looked like they were having almost as much fun as the throngs of kids lining the stage.
After a short break, punk rock prom queens Mommy Long Legs took to the stage decked out in vibrant wigs, mini-skirts, and Doc Martens in true 90’s feminist form. Their latest EP Assholes is all about lo-fi power, and live, they deliver a swift kick in the ear. Think triple-threat guitars with crunchy, rapid chords and surprising three-part harmonies. If you can call punk screams a harmony. MLL manage to reframe jeering topics into silly catharsis, all the while shredding until their fingers are bleeding and their wigs clinging to sweaty faces.
The night then took a swing to the dark side with Seattle’s up-and-coming electro-rockers Ever-so-Android. Immediately there was a different vibe in the room as ESA darkened the stage for an obsessively-good set of their sophisticated, brooding rock. You can feel the room vibrating with their heavy electronic beats, as they kick off the set with “Moment” from their 2015 record Disconnect, Hope Simpson’s vocal refrain “It’s just you and me/they’re all make-believe/I’m never gonna let you out of my sight” ripping through the room. And suddenly she owns us all.
Guitarist Drew Murray has produced perfectly indulgent, glitchy electronic tracks that pulse with hip-hop flair and post-grunge guitars. With the added live instrumentation of Ben Hillzinger on drums and bassist Ian Forrester (Dirty Dirty), the ESA chemistry is undeniably solid, the musicianship expertly refined. Murray – a quiet mastermind – and Simpson own the stage. Simpson climbs amps, swings her mic, wails in a back and forth exchange with the audience, and belts with the kind of soul you don’t see from many rock front women these days. While tracks from Disconnect are receiving high praise, they’re mixing new songs like “Sons and Daughters” into their set that you shouldn’t sleep on.
After that we all took a breather for the raffle-prize portion of the night before Seattle party-rock trio Dude York lit up the stage. While much of the young-kids-and-parents crowd cleared out during the extended break, those who stayed seemed enthralled with the bratty, punchy garage pop band. Front man Peter Richards’s crackling voice led the crowd through the head-bobbing paces of their nonchalant tracks. Their bluntly comical banter between songs making everyone that much more endeared with their youthfully messy, exuberant sound.
Photos by Kingmon Creative
Review by Stephanie Dore
Ever-so-android
