While DJ Grace isn’t playing rad tunes on her show Carpool Lane (Wednesdays 2-4pm), she is exploring the greater LA music scene. In this blog post, DJ Grace tells us about her experience at Women F*** S*** Up Fest, a festival in LA celebrating women musicians and artists.Â
In late February, I had the pleasure of attending the first day of Women F*** S*** Up Fest, a two day festival at the Smell in Los Angeles. The Smell, a DIY art space in LA, was the perfect setting for a festival like this one.
At the 2016 Women F*** S*** Up Fest, 12 female-fronted bands f***ed s*** up in their own unique ways. The Storeetellers rockabilly punk sound provided some prime dance tunes. Each band member rotated who sang lead, who was drumming, and who played guitar with each song which was truly impressive. Batwings Catwings brought the fest some awesome electro-punk audience interaction, lots of jumping that verged on moshing. The atmosphere briefly switched to more serious when Ilana Regalado recited her spoken word, calling out themes such as the objectification of female bodies. Ramonda Hammer was the queen of grunge, and brought down the house with lyrics like, “F*** Donald Trump†in their hit Goddamn idiot.
Headlining the first day of the Fest was Allison Weiss and her band. Her indie-pop/ feel-good music rounded out the concert, pumping the crowd up for one last set. It was a near constant dance party right to the end, everyone singing and dancing along to every song. Allison Weiss was the perfect artist to end the night!
Apart from the badass performances, what made this fest rock was the venue. The small crowd at Smell assured plenty of dance space, and as there were two stages the music was constant. And, it was all for a great cause! All the profits raised from WFSU Fest were given to the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, an organization that empowers young women through music education and rock music.