‘Bitch’ Magazine/Kill Rock Stars
Club de Ville, Wednesday, March 18
Here’s a question for Bitch, the Portland, Ore.-based feminist pop-culture watchdog hosting today’s shindig: Where were the women? Granted, the opening act, Explode Into Colors, is an all-girl atmospheric rock outfit, but on the whole, today’s players composed a sausage-fest. Portland’s all-male the Shaky Hands delivered perfectly serviceable indie pop, while Dallas’ the Paper Chase, also all male, trafficked in jarring, aggressive alt-rock that saw some of the growing crowd drift elsewhere. Portland-based Iron & Wine acolytes Horse Feathers provided a welcome, strangely fitting interlude, filling the air with gently rolling rhythms despite some unfortunate bleed from Mohawk’s outdoor stage. It was a lovely set nonetheless, punctuated with eerie strains of a musical saw. Bicoastal Thao With the Get Down Stay Down kicked off their set with some impressive beatboxing from frontwoman Thao Nguyen, who soothed her Edie Brickell-goes-indie vocal cords with sips of kombucha. Marnie Stern‘s threepiece provided primal-grrrl post-punk, with Portland indie rockers the Thermals, who boast a kickass girl bassist in Kathy Foster, capping the sunny afternoon’s revels. Seriously, though, apart from staffers selling back issues of the magazine and coloring books and buttons, it was hard to discern any feminist overtones apart from the DIY fashions on display.
This article appears in March 20 • 2009.