Skip to Content
Featured

Celebrate International Women’s Day With This All-Femme-Fronted Punk Show This Saturday

2:29 PM PST on March 8, 2018

Women are the backbone of punk rock, adding their graceful vocal harmonies to the neverending crash-and-snare, power chord attack of 98 percent of punk rock songs out there.

Be it the first time you heard Beki Bondage and instantly fell in love with her over the lyrics to Vice Squad’s “Latex Love,” or that time you got through a high school breakup by listening to The Devotchkas “Wicked Heart,” to L.A.’s own Alice Bag who paved the way for an entire generation of unabashed women singing it the way it is, women-fronted punk bands transcended the genre of punk rock and were always in a superior league of their own. It doesn’t matter what beautiful style of punk rock you’re into — grindcore, ska-punk, emo — there was always a frontwoman to give you a nice little break from a cranky dude shouting into the mic for an hour.

In 2018, women are still carrying the stud-laced leather legacy that the pioneers started in the late 70s. In backyards all around Los Angeles County, bands like Psycotic Scum, MUTILATE, Gag Tape, and many, many, many others are still tearing it up. However, when it came to International Women’s Day, even a city with as much punk history as L.A. didn’t have its own stand-alone all-women punk show, an issue that Stephanie Mendez took upon herself to resolve.

Stephanie Mendez. Photo courtesy of Michelle Mendez

“[International Women's Day] feels like Christmas to me, except instead of receiving gifts, we are the gifts.”

“When I realized there was nothing going on in the punk scene on this day, I found it a bit shocking,” Mendez says over a phone interview. This was this three years ago when she first threw her first DIY “International Women's Day Punk Gig” in her hometown of Santa Ana. This Saturday night at Avery Rare Shop, an art collective in downtown Los Angeles, is going to mark “Volume 3” of her annual gig that takes place and the lineup is as good as ever. It’s a wide range of sounds, from the hardcore-power violence vibes of Gag Tape to the cumbia-punk rhythms of Flor y Llanto that are on tour from Chicago.

The 28-year-old, Mexican-American feminist has been in the punk scene since she was 13 and is well-known in L.A. and O.C. punk communities. As a budding journalist, a story she wrote for Remezcla titled “5 of the Most Exciting Latinx Punk Bands in Los Angeles” went viral earlier this year, but as a punk rock lifer, she always tries to pay it forward to the genre that made her who she is. “I can’t think of any other force in my life that has been as profound to me as punk rock, it is what I know best.”

Mendez concludes that she sees International Women’s Day as an official holiday.

“The day feels like Christmas to me, except instead of receiving gifts, we are the gifts.”

For more information about the show, check out the event's Facebook page

Already a user?Log in

Thanks for reading!

Register to continue

Become a Member

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from L.A. TACO

Spot Check! Caviar Cakes, Champurrado Pot de Creme, Tamal Ice Cream, and Free Elote From Becky G

You can also party with L.A.'s first Black women-owned dispensary, enjoy a Lebanese legend past midnight, and pair quesabirrias with funnel cakes.

September 29, 2023

The Seven Best Tacos Along Metro’s K Line, From Crenshaw to Inglewood

The K Line is Metro's newest light rail line that cruises through the heart of Black Los Angeles, from Nipsey Square to Leimert Park. The taco scene along this route is all about hustle, featuring some of the cities must under-the-radar community gems like a historic L.A. taquería with a killer red salsa, lightly crunchy "enchilada tacos," and so much more. Next stop: flavor.

September 29, 2023

Is Hollywood’s Walk of Fame The World’s Worst Tourist Attraction?

A local news station scanned Google, TikTok, and other online reviews to cherry-pick a handful that calls the Boulevard "grubby, slightly scary... dirty, unsafe" and "one of the worst tourist attractions on the planet." We weighed in on the subject.

September 28, 2023

The Eight Best Punk Bars and Venues in Los Angeles

This may be the last generation of beautifully grimy punk bars and venues in a city that is overdeveloping all of these counterculture community spaces into the post-gentrification abyss. Go and support by buying drinks at all these places to make sure they stick around for the next generation.

September 27, 2023
See all posts