“Cops can’t stop the rock!” So declared Partner’s Lucy Niles at Sahara Lounge on Tuesday afternoon after permit problems forced She Shreds magazine’s day party to relocate from Kinda Tropical following Shamir’s set. The scramble meant shortened set times and cancellations, but the packed Eastside soul shack thrummed with the triumph of pulling it off.
Diverse, inclusive representation of guitarists is the backbone of She Shreds’ mission, and the booking of their afternoon free-for-all proved a stark reflection of that. From the snotty garage rock of Madrid’s Hinds to the manic, unhinged no wave of L.A.’s French Vanilla, and the psych-noir of La Luz to Partner’s Nineties-infused, riff-heavy crunch, the electrified energy clearly communicated, “Rock & roll is for everyone.”
Haley Heynderickx’s full 30 minutes of lush, electrified folk proved nothing short of extraordinary. Opening with pop musings on being embarrassed in “Oom Sha La La,” the Portland, Ore., guitarist-vocalist pulled mainly from remarkable debut I Need to Start a Garden with the help of a drummer and a keyboardist supplying backup vocals.
The cinematic, grief-struck “Show Me a Body” pulsed with bursts of swelling instrumentation, like waves of emotion imbued with an otherworldy quality. Seven-minute closer “Worth It” swelled and contracted, traversing everything from gratitude to heartache and existential dread. Heynderickx’s specialty is fitting enormous narratives into tiny spaces.
On the other end of the sonic spectrum, London trio Shopping thrashed through an under-20-minute set of angular, jittering post-punk knotted in a tangle of vocals. Throughout the stop-start dissonance of “The Hype” and the frenetic, needling “Take It Outside,” frontwoman Rachel Aggs’ fingers blurred on her guitar, clinical dexterity punctured by the band’s enraged ennui.
“She really puts the shred in She Shreds,” some surprised audience member remarked to his friend at one point during the show.
Duh. They all did.
This article appears in March 9 • 2018.