Girls Rock! Benefit Show 2018

On March 16th, I went to Howlers to see a benefit show for Girls Rock! Pittsburgh, an awesome summer camp that helps teach teenagers how to play musick. Ir's a really good organization, and this looked like a really cool show with a lot of my favorite Pittsburgh bands.

The first band up was Bitter Whiskers. I don't think that I had seen them before, except at a They Might Be Giants tribute show a few weeks earlier. The musick was very quiet and acoustic, sort of like The Cranberries but with an accordion. I liked it, though I wish they had played a few that were maybe a bit more energetic. The sad slowness only goes so far, but it was nice.

Second, was one of my favorite Pittsburgh bands, Aloe. Aloe has been doing some really cool noise rock/post-punk stuff for a little bit now, and they recently got a new drummer. This was my first time seeing this lineup. It was a little messy. Earlier there was a bit of a sound issue, and later there were a few moments where the drums were out of time a bit. That's rock 'n' roll though. I've certainly been there, and it's kind of fun. Anyway, it was a pretty cool set in that messy rock 'n' roll way - Precise Modern Lovers Order.

The third band was the always energetic and rockin' Murder For Girls. When I have seen them previously, I always thought they sounded very compressed or something. That sounds super weird to say about a live band. Anyway, it didn't sound like that this time. This was very 90s-ish rock 'n' roll, The Julianna Hatfield Three or some band called Nirvana. The guitars are very crunchy and the drums very crashy. It does feel kind of samey after a while, but they ended just when it was getting to that point.

The last band to play was Garter Shake, who I like a lot. They always remind me of a lot of those poppy garage bands like Tacocat that were popping up for a while. This set seemed heaviness than others. I really, really liked their cover of The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog", one of my favorite songs. I hope they keep doing that. It was so cool.

After all the bands had played, I hung out for a bit and left soon after. I had fun. The show also had me excited for the next Aloe show, which was coming up a few days later. I hope to see more Stooges covers in the future from Pittsburgh bands. If you have some money or instruments lying around, I also will mention that donating to Girls Rock! Pittsburgh would be a pretty cool idea. And if you have some children, or you yrself are an 8-18-year-old girl, you might want to check out the summer camp they offer. They have lessons in playing an instrument, zine making, screen printing, songwriting, and more. The showcase at the end is always fun to see too; I like hearing what the attendees came up with. I hope I will see you there, in some manner, this August.