[ATTENDED: July 26, 2021] The Linda Lindas [postponed from July 21, 2022]
I was excited to take my daughter to see The Linda Lindas since she is the same age as they are. She didn’t really know their music (I heard about them when they played at a library in LA), but I thought she’d enjoy the show and the venue.
But when the show was postponed (it was pretty cool that it was only postponed five days), the new date was on a night that she has a 4H commitment. So she couldn’t go.
So, I went since I wanted to see them while they were still buzzed about. If you know them at all, you know that they are four teenaged girls who made a great punk song called “Racist Sexist Boy” about their experiences with a racist sexist classmate. They did a pandemic-era show at the L.A. library and made huge news.
The foursome are great musicians, they write rocking, relevant (to them) punk songs and, most important, they have a ton of fun. At the time of our show, the drummer, Mila de la Garza, was possibly not yet 12. She played a solid drum, sang her heart out, drew a cat under her nose like a mustache and had a great time.
The oldest member, Bela Salazar had not turned 18 yet. She sang two songs about cats, sang another song in Spanish and during their Go-Go’s cover, she played a guitar solo while lying on her back on the floor in true guitar hero style.
Lucia de la Garza was 15 and she climbed on an amp and created some choreographed rock god poses with bassist Eloise Wong who was 14. Eloise has the angriest vocal style (she sings “Racist Sexist Boy”) but she also has cat whiskers painted on her face and very much enjoyed the choreographed dancing with Lucia.
The best part of the show was how much fun they were having. I see a lot of bands who are very serious or very angry or very mopey or whatever. But these are young kids who are, let’s face it, living a dream. They should be having fun. They should be hamming it up and enjoying every moment they can. I also enjoyed that they tried their best to get the young kids in the audience as close to the front as possible. There were a lot of little kids in the audience and I hoped that they could sneak pass us olds and get a good view.
There was a cute kid near us and we kept trying to convince her to go up to the fence, but she didn’t really want to leave her mom.
So the band played 18 songs in roughly forty-five minutes. They opened with a cover of the song that gave them their name. They played every song from their album and their EP and even did their “Claudia Kishi” single. They play their new Go-Go’s cover which was super fun. They talked to us throughout the show and were clearly enjoying themselves.
They ended by bringing Bacchae out for a ripping stage-stomping rendition if Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl” which the whole crowd went nuts for. It was a ton of fun. And it was over really early (for young people’s bed times). I have no idea for how long The Linda Lindas will be a thing, but I’m glad I got to experience them, and I kind of hope they have a Velvet Underground effect on young girls and inspire a whole new generation or Riot grrrls to pick up guitars and rock out.
Incidentally, this show gave me one of the weirdest experiences I’ve had at a show. A woman in front of me actually turned around and asked me to take a step back to give her personal space. I hadn’t been touching her and I was so shocked at the request–um, we’re at a rock show–that I just stepped back with my jaw on the floor. She then proceeded to dance in the most uncool way I’ve ever seen. Perhaps this was her first time out in public? I’m not sure. It was pretty wacky.
SETLIST
- Linda Linda (The Blue Hearts cover)
- Claudia Kishi [single]
- Monica Ψ
- Talking to Myself ⇑
- Why ⇑
- Never Say Never Ψ
- No Clue Ψ
- Nino ⇑
- Missing You Ψ
- Growing Up ⇑
- Magic ⇑
- Fine ⇑
- Remember ⇑
- Cuántas Veces ⇑
- Tonite (The Go‐Go’s cover)
- Oh! ⇑
- Racist Sexist Boy ⇑
- Rebel Girl (Bikini Kill cover) (with Bacchae)
⇑ Growing Up (2022)
Ψ The Linda Lindas EP (2020)
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