L7 Rocks The East Coast Again by Margaret Clifton

September 24, 1997 rolls by like any other day...until 9pm in Winston-Salem at a club called Ziggy's. The band Bluebird struts on stage and wails like an injured child. In laymen's terms...they sucked! To a meager applause the band packs up their equipment and leaves the stage after a 30 minute set. We wait breathlessly for the main attraction to greet us from center stage, only to be denied. Another opening band, Clawhammer, takes the stage. After about 45 minutes of fighting back the urge to throw any available object, they finally left the platform. Instantaneously, a crowd draws forward and we position ourselves as close to the instruments as we could get.

L7 takes the stage. Opening with their smash hit "Andres", L7 bounces across the stage with strobe lights flashing. The concert was mostly songs taken from their new album The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum, but a few of their old hits were tossed in.

Stationed between Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner, we had a great view. For an off the wall surprise, the band even played "I Would Walk (500 Miles)". The show was great...right up until you noticed the rest of the crowd. We were surrounded by teeny-boppers who either were there because "grungy bands are cool" or because they had maybe heard one L7 song on the radio and had nothing to do that night.

Luckily for us, L7 played 2 nights later in Atlanta at The Masquerade. Though the crowd was much tamer than those in the past (but it still had it's share of assholes- "L7 doesn't like bullies" -Donita), at least this time the crowd knew the words to their older songs and not just the one's on the radio. Even though the play list was the same, the sound quality was 10 times as good as the performance at Ziggy's. L7's new bassist played the older songs just as well as Jennifer Finch, who left the band for this last album. She bounced and bopped all over the stage and had a blast. L7seemed to have a much better time in Atlanta due to the crowd's response. After playing the final song in their encore, "Lorenza, Giada, Alessandra", guitar picks and drum sticks were handed to the audience and the band headed out for their next show in Pensicola, FL. We bid farewell to our friends, L7, until the next time they head this way. Discounting the Ziggy's crowd (such as the 7' freak who trampled everyone and cussed out the band), and the opening bands, they were awesome shows. L7 has once again rated a "10".

P.S. - L7! Next time you come to NC, go to The Ritz in Raleigh. The crowd will be much more appreciative!