#m0urningth3ft

Riot grrrl was anti-establishment; Courtney is the establishment.

JUST BECAUSE YOUR MUSIC IS FROM A FEMALE PERSPECTIVE DOES NOT MAKE IT FEMINIST.

(hell, the front runners of riot grrrl can't even call themselves actual feminists due to their active exclusion of women of color.)

Die Spitz @ Pearl St. Co-Op in Austin, TX - 9/17/2023

(WE LOVE YOU CHLOE!!)

Die Spitz was the second-to-last band to go on. And I didn’t take that many photos because my phone was about to die.

The fire department was called during their set, and the entire building was evacuated. My best friend and I showed up after working a night shift (and missing the first few bands and getting ready in the bathroom at Kerbey Lane) to the street filled with people dressed in pink lace skirts and platform mary janes and camo pants and bandoliers filled with bullets; The theme of the show was Dolls v. Soldiers. (I wore a pink corset and S rocked the shit out of my step-dad’s old military jacket.)

We sat on the steps and passed cigarettes back and forth with a few other girls from work, until the fire trucks drove away and they let us all back inside to watch the rest of the show. Every bone in my body ached, and my muscles were sore. (Chronic illness and rock shows rarely mix well, but it’s worth it in the end.) It was one of the best shows that I had seen in a while.

The energy was raw in a way that you can only truly find at shows like this. And the crowd was slightly ridiculous and borderline aggressive. There was nothing separating the stage from the crowd, so the barrier became a wall of half-dressed college boys who would grab beer cans mid air before they reached the stage and tossed them back into the crowd. Everyone was pushing and shoving and freaking out about how “hot they were.” And Die Spitz played through the chaos. But I was also struck by a nagging annoyance that I’m sure most female musicians would understand.

As a pseudo-musician myself, it was inspiring to see, but also frustrating. To be a woman, in a supposed male-dominated field is fucking frustrating!! I understand the dire need to separate oneself from the title of “female-fronted/all-girl-rock band because male musicians aren’t getting projectiles thrown at their fucking heads. And we don’t ever throw around terms like “male-fronted band.” It makes it feel like being a woman requires some sort of disclaimer. Who fucking cares if they’re all girls?! Being hot has nothing to do with music?! Can’t it just be cool that they play good music?!

With that in mind, there’s also something so fucking beautiful and powerful about four women playing music together that I can’t fully articulate in my own words. And it pisses me off that we can’t talk about it without putting women in arbitrary boxes that don’t actually define anything about their talent.

I don’t really know where I was going with this, other that to say that Die Spitz is so much more than just a typical “all-girl-band.” I didn’t mean for a simple post of old photos to turn so retrospective. But in this moment, where I struggle to find my own words, I will turn to a quote. In her memoir, Rebel Girl, Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill describes the experience of seeing Babes in Toyland live:

“Their lyrics were feminist poetry. I knew what they were about because the songs had been living in my pores forever. I just didn’t know it until that night.

After the show everyone I talked to at the party had something to say about the band. But no one talked about the songs…or singing.

I cannot explain to you how utterly crazy these comments by my “punk family” made me feel. I had just seen the most important band in the world…They were everything. I’d seen God and she was three women playing songs in a shack in the middle of nowhere.”