In honor of International Women’s Day this month (March 8th to be exact) we wanted to showcase & recognize some of the ladies that have been rawking our world.
From newcomers to legends that come in all shapes & sizes and different geographical & cultural backgrounds.
Here’s to Girls that Rawk!
Meytal Cohen & her band Meytal – January 14th – Trees – Dallas, TX
You may have found yourself sometime over the past 6 years deep down the rabbit hole on Youtube in a endless black hole of drum solo videos of phenomenal Israeli drummer Meytal Cohen. The 31 year-old wunderkind became an Internet celebrity over that time for videos showing her covering several popular metal and hard rock songs on drums.
The videos inspire an insatiable need for more for a variety of reasons.
First and foremost, Meytal is just such a powerful percussionist & perhaps your seeing some of your favorite & most intricate drum patterns been laid out for you for the first time. Next is how effortlessly she seems to accomplish this that inspires the idea that their really isn’t anything she couldn’t play, so you keep watching to find out. As much as it pains me, it’s also difficult not to acknowledge the novelty aspect – Metal has historically been a Boy’s Club, so here is a woman, whose actual name looks & sounds like Metal, playing all of those impossible licks that you grew up envying & doing it always with a gigantic irresistable smile across her gorgeous face. You’ve never seen that or anything like her before, but trust me, Meytal Cohen is the real deal and she’s just hitting her stride.
Her band, simply called Meytal, released their debut album Alchemy last year, drawing comparisons to bands like All That Remains and Killswitch Engage.
Cohen was a guest on my weekly podcast TrickyKid Radio prior to her band’s performance opening for Queensryche that evening. You can listen, download & subscribe all for free by clicking right here.
The band’s 40-minute set was explosive. Cohen, surrounded by a drumkit fortress of DW and Meinl gear, Watching her pound her toms in a live setting was a mesmerizing first time experience after watching all those videos.
She also surrounded herself with a very capable band.
Singer Eric Emery exhibitied a nice vocal range and tone, while bassist Anel Orantes Pedrero really held down the low end.
The band played various selections from the album, including an awesome cover that I promised Meytal that I wouldn’t reveal for those who have not yet seen the tour but can hint that she previously performed the song for one of her YouTube videos. Go see Meytal, she rawks!
Lita Ford – February 14th – The Rail Club – Fort Worth, TX
I grew up Metal and totally in love with Lita Ford in the 1980s. I knew nothing of her punk, glam Hollywood days as a member of girl-power innovators the Runaways until a bit later (& now a total obsessive). To me her peers more like say Doro Pesch – there were very few women leading Metal bands in the 1980s.
Sure most of it captured a light-hearted sense of escapism but it always fun and Ford works the badass schtick better than most. because she is GENUINELY badass.
This year marks a period of a flurry of activity for her with her memoir Living Like a Runaway out this month & a new record Time Capsule on the way.
Many ways to spend Valentine’s Day and Lita Ford came to the stage in a fabulous red leather outfit that screamed rock legend royalty.
Ford opened a strong set with the one two-punch of Gotta Let Go from 1984’s Dancin’ On the Edge & a cover of Elton John’s The Bitch is Back and continued delivering a real, balls-to-the-wall show that rejected mediocrity. Blazing solos kept on coming & each song was played as if it was going to be their last, never allowing for a dull moment.
I’ve tried to see every surviving member of the Runaways, finally seeing Joan Jett & Cherie Currie a few years ago. My first Lita Ford concert wasn’t actually until 2010 in Oklahoma City of all places at a Hair Metal festival. I was very excited and even her backing band for that tour were some aquaintances of mine from New Jersey but quite frankly, the set wasn’t very good at all. Their’s a video of it floating around where you can see me watching side stage between members of the Scorpions and Vince Neil, who wasn’t even scheduled to perform, just hanging out (with a blond under each arm ‘natch).
So I walked into this show with a mix of skepticism & hope that this would be better and exceeded any & all expectations I think anyone had. It rawked!
And just when the thought she was about to downshift here comes the fatal combo of her own version of Cherry Bomb and Kiss Me Deadly, and Close My Eyes Forever, the ballad she did with Ozzy & the biggest hit in her solo career. Ford STILL pushes the limits of rock ‘n’ roll and kicking ass are all about. See this tour!
Setlist
Gotta Let Go
The Bitch Is Back (Elton John cover)
Larger Than Life
Blueberry
Living Like a Runaway
Aces & Eights
Hungry
What Do Ya Know About Love
Back to the Cave
Falling In and Out of Love
Can’t Catch Me
Out for Blood
Cherry Bomb (The Runaways)
Close My Eyes Forever
Kiss Me Deadly
Nervosa – March 9th – Tomcat’s West – Fort Worth, TX
For me historically, the best shows are always the ones that you don’t expect, know nothing of beforehand and therefore come with no pretense.
My birthday was just a few days prior and my oldest friend Chris was eager to show me a good time. I trust his taste inexplicably as well as he is familiar with mine as much of his own, so he knows what I might like. When he told me just hours before we departed for the show that we were going to see Nervosa, an all-female thrash band from Brazil, I was very excited. What he didn’t and having never seen them live himself, could not have foretold was that they were going to put on one of the heaviest & most enjoyable rock shows we both have ever seen – like EVER.
First time to the States, three young & hungry bad asses playing in a dive to a modest crowd on a Wednesday night in a second tier market, took the stage like they were headlining the Donnington Festival. They rawked 50 people like we were 50,000.
Lead singer and bassist Fernanda Lira is positively mesmerizing – Not relying on her stunning good looks, what makes her so captivating as a front woman is that she’s able to play that character that effortlessly allows you to suspend your disbelief seamlessly, while delivering the goods in spades.
You won’t be able to take your eyes off of her. Slayer’s Tom Araya is an obvious influence (look closely at the Slayer covering her right hand) with her whipping her long black hair and being a bassist/vocalist just like him. That’s where the comparisons stop and the innovation begins.
It’s great that they are all amazing players and perform extremely well, but it was the presentation that sold it.
It was downright genius the way the show was paced – Anyone with a pulse was all in by the first chorus and couldn’t wait to see what was coming next.
Setlist
Twisted Values
Invisible Oppression
Into Moshpit
Victim of Yourself
Envious
Time Of Death
Justice be Done
Morbid Courage
Death!
Uranio em Nós
Masked Betrayer
Encore:
Wake Up and Fight
They fit perfectly into that raised-on-Thrash but with a new, hungrier spirit to extend it’s legacy as well as their own.
Can’t say enough kind things about how nice & inviting they all were after the show. No pretense, no bullshit, no egos – just rawk, real & gratitude.
They will be returning to the States in August after completing recording of their new LP over the Summer – DO NOT MISS IT!
Sophie Beem – March 11th – Trees – Dallas, TX
Newcomer Sophie Beem’s debut EP is released this week and if you don’t recognize the name, get ready, because you are about to hear a LOT of it!
Beem was handpicked by Beyoncé for her prestigious Parkwood Entertainment management company, and she has a massive push behind her.
Beem auditioned for The X-Factor making it through the auditions until the following year she re-appeared in a TEDxYouth video, performing a couple of original songs. Then last May she signed her management deal with Beyonce.
Ensuring those early appearances don’t define her later career, she emerges under their guidance with a strong debut single in the form of Skyline.
Knowing all of this and loving the single & intrigued by her strong talent and backstory, when I heard she was coming to Trees, a club that holds less than 500 people, as an opener for Charlie Puth’s current tour, my thought process was, this will be the last time you’ll get to see this amazing talent in such a small setting, and after seeing her perform, my intuition (I’m calling it now) will prove correct.
I’m telling you right now, don’t sleep on Miss Beem, she’s about to freaking DOMINATE – The show while had modest production, as openers often do it really showed off what she can do. In a few years (or less) this girl will be coming back to Dallas headlining arenas with state-of-the-art production and her picture everywhere but on this night, what I saw was raw talent, mixed with grace and beauty. Look out, here she comes!
Photos –
Roy Turner
Chris Adcock
Christopher Todd
Teen Vogue
