8″ BetsyWith the explosion of queer music we’ve had the chance to expand beyond the dyke punk paradigm. But there is something refreshing about the idea of returning to our rockin’ roots and QCR’s ‘Pass the Torch’ tour is just the label to bring us back there.
The line-up includes 8 Inch Betsy, Fruit Punch, Piriah Piranha, Tough Tough Skin, Oi-Gays, queer and girl punk bands that come from both coasts as well as the land in between. Here in P-Town they take the stage at The Egyptian Club (3701 SE Division St) this Friday at 8 PM. While never a bastion of the rough and tumble rock in the 90s, the E Room is, nevertheless, our only purely lesbian club, so it works as a venue of nostalgia at least.
‘Pass the Torch’ reminds us that queercore is not dead. Activism, gay identity politics, and straight up raucous rock are more a part of the movement than the subtle musical nuance the current crop overproduced bands strive for. And therein lies its strength. You don’t have to be pretty, you don’t have to be cool (although that helps), you don’t even have to be a musical genius. You do have to spread the message and feel the bone-shaking riffs in your soul.
And in this semi-NSFW Pariah Piranha video below, where lesbians make-under a flamboyant gay man with flannel and a trucker cap we can laugh at and relish in the silly and inspiring of both where we’ve come from and what we’ve become.
