The all-female rock band L7 got started during the 80s in LA’s art punk scene, became big in the 90s, played with Nirvana, and appeared in films by Oliver Stone and John Waters. Then in the early 2000s, they went through what a lot of bands go through: They broke up. About 10 years ago, there was a documentary, a Kickstarter campaign, and a reunion.
And on a recent Saturday, they curated a festival in Downtown LA featuring up-and-coming female-fronted bands, like Brooklyn’s Surfbort and LA’s Paranoyds.
Staz Lindes and Lexi Funston of The Paranoyds grab a quick selfie after they played at the Belasco. Courtesy of The Paranoyds.
Staz Lindes and Lexi Funston of The Paranoyds say they wouldn't be here without bands like L7. And even though they're not trying to make a statement by being a music group made up of three women and one guy, they're still frustrated with a male-dominated music scene.
L7 co-founder Donita Sparks says when the chance came to put together the festival, she thought, “Why not do something like the old Sunset Junction street fair in Silver Lake?” For decades, that festival featured bands from a bunch of different genres.
She says she asked around LA for advice on who to invite.
"I didn't want shoegazers," she says. "I wanted some chutzpah. I wanted some threat, some menace, and some humor, and some fun."
What she ended up with was mostly female-led bands.
"Quite frankly, I found them more interesting than some of the dude-fronted bands," she adds.
As young fans moshed in the pit, L7 closed out the festival with a set of old hits and newer stuff. Like “Dispatch from Mar a Lago,” which they wrote before the first Trump presidency. It imagines people storming the gates of the Florida resort.