Photo credit: C. Elliot Photography
Over the years, L.A. band L7 has been tagged riot grrl, grunge, alt-rock, and a bunch of other sub-genres that semi-fit. But the reality is, L7 is and have always been a punk band. A musically untouchable, melodically gifted, ferocious, intelligent and inspiring punk rock band.
At the Belasco, Los Angeles, on a Friday night in early October, L7 was celebrating its 40th anniversary, and the idea that they would still be performing after four decades must have seemed far-fetched in the '90s when they were throwing a tampon "from source" into the crowd at the Reading Festival, U.K. Or appearing sans pants on The Word. But here we are, and here they are.
And ok, nowadays the four musicians--Donita Sparks, Suzi Gardner, Jennifer Finch and Dee Plakas--aren't so much into baring asses or lobbing tampon grenades (Sparks in both cases), but they've lost none of the fire, the unbridled energy, that mades records like Bricks Are Heavy, Hungry For Stink and Smell the Magic so utterly infectious.
We got tunes from all of those and more at the Belasco. The wonder-drone of "Andres" came first, the stomp-along of "Everglade" soon afterwards. And we were reminded that, as good as The Prodigy's cover of "Fuel My Fire" was, nothing beats the original.
"Monster" and "Freak Magnet" have the sludgy groove that L7 perfected, and "Dispatch from Mar-A-Lago" is appropriately topical. "Pretend We're Dead" remains one of the best songs that ever came out of the '90s, and "Shitlist" is the chaotic, rapid-fire punk anthem than served as the soundtrack to Mickey and Mallory shooting up a diner in Natural Born Killers. At the Belasco, it inspired some bouncing and that was perfect.
Forty year in and L7 is still this good. Maybe 40 more is too much to ask for, but who the fuck knows?
