My first exposure to riot grrrl was, embarrassingly, from watching 10 Things I Hate About You (it’s not my fault I was born in 1989 and didn’t get angsty until 2002!). So I couldn’t help imagining that walking into the lady band land that is the Tinderbox Music Festival at the Music Hall of Williamsburg would be just like the scene when Heath Ledger walks into Club Skunk and is met with the glares of angry punk women. I guess that just goes to show even feminists aren’t free from buying into angry feminist stereotypes from time to time.
Dynasty Electric @ Tinderbox (Cred: Emily Turner)
The festival was started by Allison Greenfield in 2010 after she tried to hop onto the Lilith Fair revival tour and noticed the large community of female artists interested in such a project. The festival features female fronted bands and 100% of the proceeds go to organizations that promote women’s/girl’s empowerment. This year’s organizations were Girls Write Now, which runs a writing mentorship program, and the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. I should’ve known that walking into the festival would not illicit intimidating feelings of inadequacy, but would instead be inspiring (which it was!). It was one of those moments where, despite all you thought you knew about the patriarchy and any feminist re-education you’ve undertaken, experiencing a female majority in places you usually don’t is overwhelmingly empowering.
Don’t get me wrong – music performance has made HUGE strides over the years. Awesome leading ladies have been fronting bands, infiltrating classical music, breaking into hip hop, and dominating the pop scene for a long time. The problem is that, especially with rock music, they aren’t given their due credit. It’s rare that any female artist or female fronted group will make a Top # List. You’ll instead find them on a separate “lady list” because, as you know… music made by women is totally different. As for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? In the 27 years since its founding, there have been 302 inductees, and forty two have been women or had female members.
Awkwafina @ Tinderbox (Cred: Emily Turner)
What’s more, you will often find women pushed into roles deemed more appropriate for the female disposition: singing, piano, or guitar with any hard technical skills downplayed. Unfortunately, most of the female artists at the event mirrored this instrumental gender divide. Only women fronted the bands, but few played an additional instrument, and most had an all male backup band. A handful of women broke the mold: Awkwafina (of recent feminist Internet fame) as a rapper, Leah (of Slothrust playing for Lady Lamb the Beekeeper) who slapped on the bass, and Angie Boyle of Aye Nako, the only female drummer I saw throughout the evening.
Deerhoof @ Tinderbox (Cred: Emily Turner)
Notable performances came from Dynasty Electric, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, and Deerhoof. Deerhoof, headlining, rocked hard as expected. They mostly played from Deerhoof vs. Evil, their critically acclaimed 2009 album. The technical skill of the band was astounding, and drummer Greg Saunier let loose like I hadn’t seen in an act in a while. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper had a really nice sound but relied heavily on the front woman, Aly Spaltro. Spaltro was magnetic and through the band’s easy going folk rock style you could hear an enticing hard and angry rocker. Dynasty Electric was just…fun! The electro duo was full of energy and were just so into their music it was infectious. Their guest bassist, decked in the finest rainbow zebra fringed glory, definitely added to their new agey love for the vibes and the audience. I’m not super into EDM, but I was into this.
Overall, it was a nice mix of bands that covered a wide variety of genres: pop, folk, rock, R&B, rap, and EDM. And whether or not I liked the band, it was great seeing women on stage just doing what they love. Visibility is empowering, so it’s great that projects like this exist and that there has been an overall increase in women headlining music festivals. This past year Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Bonnaroo all had at least one female at the top of the lineup list (albeit not much more than that). In addition, other projects such as the Afropunk Festival in NYC (which regularly features women) and the BET awards show Black Girls Rock! are producing entertainment that counters the stereotypes of black artists and youth in the industry. It’s an exciting trend and it’s great to see so many artists embodying the wise words of Kathleen Hannah: “At some point you can’t worry about ever being a woman in rock, or a girl in rock. You just do it.”
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Emily Turner
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Les Foufounes Folles 