L7 didn’t get the ending they deserved.
Though faster and funnier than their sludgy Seattle counterparts, guitarists Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner, bassist Jennifer Finch, and drummer Dee Plakas rode the grunge wave of the Nineties from Los Angeles onto Letterman, MTV, and Lollapalooza via 1990 Sub Pop masterpiece Smell the Magic, 1992 Butch Vig-produced commercial breakthrough Bricks Are Heavy, and experimental 1994 howler Hungry for Stink. With metallic riffs and acerbic wit, they harnessed punk playfulness into decade–defining anthems, an activist footprint, and plenty of moments of pre-internet virality. Even after Finch left the band in 1996 and the alternative boom left the zeitgeist, L7 kept going – which may have been the problem.
“We really sputtered out,” Sparks says now. “People were forgetting about us and we were kind of getting swept under the rug, and people didn’t give a shit about our opinions.” They announced an indefinite hiatus in 2001 “without saying goodbye to our fans properly, without letting them know we were going on an indefinite hiatus, because it was over a fight. And some of us didn’t speak to each other for 15 years.”
Eleven years after mounting a reunion that yielded a documentary, a new album, and almost nonstop touring, the punk-metal pioneers are ready to hang it up again – this time, Sparks says, “while we’re still loved and we’re still on people’s minds.” The Last Hurrah tour stops at Emo’s on Oct. 12 with support from Minneapolis punks VIAL.
It’s still not a perfect ending. Finch, a livewire presence known for her flaming red hair and raucous onstage energy, and for pening L7 classics like “Everglade,” “One More Thing,” and “Shirley,” died tragically in July after battling an aggressive form of brain cancer. But she gave her bandmates her blessing to continue the tour with Janis Tanaka, who played bass in the group from 1999 to 2001.
“It’s really wonderful that she was available because she’s a familiar face,” Sparks says. “We know her well. She’s part of the family. She’s a great bass player. She picks shit up very quickly.” Perhaps more importantly, “we’re not freaking out a newbie with our humor and shit. And she’s not shy. And I think a lot of people stepping into this position might be really shy, and she’s not.”
(Days after our call, where Sparks told me to “keep my ears peeled” for a surprise, L7 shared the new song “Loma Linda,” which is actually an old song – written during Tanaka’s first stint in the band – that the group recently fleshed out with new vocals and lyrics. “Another song about California,” she cries in the slow, trippy tune.)
Sparks offers a familiar refrain when asked why this seemingly successful second run is ending: Touring has gotten expensive.
“We’re in this in-between place. We don’t have a bunch of hits so that we can play county fairs and stuff like that, which can really supplement a tour because that’s good bread, you know. But on our level of touring, it’s hard to sustain,” she explains. “We’re not this huge band, but we’re also not this band that wants to rough it in a van for six weeks. We’ve done that, and it’s really hard.”
Plus, “I feel if we’re out there, we should be putting out new material, and recording’s expensive. So everything’s squeezing us,” the 63-year-old adds. “And so we just want to go out on a high. Even though we lost Jennifer, this is still going to be celebratory, and we want our fans to know that this is it. So come on out, see the freak show while you can, and rock out, and we’ll all bid each other farewell.”
The guitarist promises Last Hurrah attendees an overview of L7’s seven-album catalog, including tracks from 2019’s Scatter the Rats and other reunion singles. The hits will stay, but she’s excited to switch up the set list to surprise fans who have caught their fair share of reunion shows.
“We’ve been milking this cow for 11 years,” she chuckles. “They’ve seen us play certain songs again and again and again, and of course we have to play the bigger songs, but we’re switching out some of the deep cut nuggets, so I think they’ll be pleased about that.”
Though they didn’t identify with the Riot Grrrl movement and understandably bristled at being lumped in with every other women-led Nineties act, L7 was a feminist band. They co-founded the concert series Rock for Choice, which raised money for reproductive rights through performances from Nirvana, Hole, Pearl Jam, and other marquee acts of the era, in 1991, and by Sparks’ estimation, were “one of the first hard rock female bands that got on MTV.” Yet, by the end of their first incarnation, “I think people looked at us as passe or something, or out of style.”
“We weren’t getting the call to make statements about female bands in the Nineties and shit like that,” Sparks shares. “Other people were being the spokespeople.
“But since we reunited, all of a sudden people want our opinions on stuff,” she says with a laugh. “Our status seems to have changed to these elder stateswomen of rock or something. And we get a lot of pats on the back for what we’ve done, for any kind of trails we’ve blazed – our contribution to rock we are being recognized for.”
In the doldrums of their hiatus, “I felt like it was a weird dream I had that we were ever a band in the first place,” Sparks admits. It’s not a dream to the next generation. From VIAL to Sparks favorites Amyl and the Sniffers to Austin-launched, onetime L7 openers Die Spitz, women are leading the contemporary hard rock scene. Many of them are wearing L7 shirts while they do it.
“I feel really happy when I see those bands, especially if they’ve got a little humor to them,” Sparks says. “That’s my favorite: when they’ve got hutzpah and humor, then I really dig it.”
L7 performs at Emo’s on October 12.
