Big Nite Live, Boston, Massachusetts USA
Written by worldOneFm on October 13, 2022
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One of the best all-female bands ever, L7 never quite received the worldwide level of success they so richly deserved.
The quartet obtained major critical acclaim with a trio of 90’s releases, “Smell The Magic” (1990), “Bricks Are Heavy” (1992), and “Hungry for Stink” (1994). All are powerhouse releases, but “Bricks Are Heavy” is considered the band’s creative pinnacle. So much so that the group (Suzi Gardner, guitar/vocals; Donita Sparks, guitar/vocals; Jennifer Finch, vocals/bass; and Dee Plakas, drums/vocals) are celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Bricks Are Heavy” by performing it in its entirety on their current tour.
L7 performed a show at Big Nite Live in Boston, Massachusetts on October 9, 2022.
Not hesitating one bit, L7 opened the show with the initial cut from “Bricks Are Heavy”, the anti-war anthem “Wargasm” (with such in-your-face lyrics as, “Body bags and dropping bombs/The Pentagon knows how to turn us, turn us on”). They didn’t ease up on the musical intensity and unleashed “Scrap” (about a skinhead the band once knew), and their most recognizable cut, “Pretend We’re Dead”.
The vibes of death continued with “Diet Pill” (where the heroine of the song is leaving town after bludgeoning her husband with a frying pan), but changed course with a frantic version of “Everglade”, a tale of a wild night in a mosh pit at a live show.
The band was extremely tight all evening (even more so than their last local gig in 2018) and Finch was the charismatic stage bopper she always is. It was great that when L7 regrouped in 2014 (after originally splitting in 2001) that Finch was onboard as they never seemed to get back on track when she left the group in 1994 (to be replaced by local musician Gail Greenwood). Greenwood was a great replacement, but Finch has an onstage aura that is irreplaceable.
After finishing up “Bricks Are Heavy” with the final album cut, “This Ain’t Pleasure”, L7 delivered a mix of some of their better tracks off various releases. “Andres” and “Fuel My Fire” (from “Hungry for Stink”), meshed well alongside “Shove” (from “Smell The Magic”), and “Stadium West” (from 2019’s “Smell The Rats”). While “Stadium West” is a couple of decades removed from the others, it is filled with the same manic energy and attitude of their earlier material.
Wrapping up the set with “Fast and Fighting”, L7 returned for a single encore and banged out a frantic cover of the David Bowie classic “Suffargette City”, concluding the show on a pretty perfect note.
