Review: L7 at Rosemount Hotel

L7 at Rosemount Hotel
w/ Sarco
Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Forming in the mid-80s in Los Angeles, L7 were one of the first all-female heavy alternative acts to break onto mainstream radio in the early 90s. Their biggest hit, Pretend We’re Dead, from their 1992 album Bricks Are Heavy, shared the airwaves with huge hits like Metallica’s Enter Sandman and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, cementing L7 as one of the iconic acts in a golden era of alternative rock.

L7 are said to be the precursors to the Riot grrrl movement, but they also rode the edge of grunge, metal, glam rock, and surf rock. Now, over thirty years later, they were back in Perth to celebrate the anniversary of Bricks Are Heavy to a sold-out Rosemount Hotel. It might have been a while between drinks, but L7 have a storied history of performances in WA, with older fans reminiscing over their appearance at Mandurah’s Solar Stomp festival in 1998, where they performed alongside other 90s greats Primus, The Tea Party, and The Jesus Lizard.

Sarco were an interesting choice of support act. Walking into a 90s rock-era show, you would expect to be assaulted with overdriven guitars and pounding drums; instead, punters were greeted with a quirky electronic trio that used arpeggiated synth lines and drum machines together with effect-laden vocals to produce an avant-garde style of electro pop. The laid-back beats and improv vocal style provided an inviting backdrop for L7 fans to enter the room and converse in preparation for the main act.

Lead vocalist Sinead Ruby brought her own swagger and style to the stage. Although the vibe of their set seemed very improvised, the songs could have used some more structure and repetition to really cement their hooks. It was hard to distinguish between songs or if the set was completely improvised. Some structure could also have helped give the front person a more confident delivery and performance.

After a weird mash-up entrance song that featured Enter Sandman, L7 took the stage, and lead vocalist Donita Sparks introduced the anniversary tour with album opener Wargasm. Excited hecklers at the back were calling for more volume, and by the second song, Scrap, the sound was up to a headbanging level.

Their most commercially recognised track, Pretend We’re Dead, came third, as it appears on the album, and Sparks joked, “Usually the popular songs are left until last, and if anyone leaves afterwards, we will hunt them down.” Phones came out for the big hit, and if anything, it got people in the mood early. Although it is their most well-known track, luckily it isn’t their best song, and there were plenty of big hits to follow. Namely, their second single off Bricks Are Heavy, Everglade, had fans clamouring to get a glimpse of bassist Jennifer Finch taking lead vocals in the jam-packed front room.

L7’s strength comes from having three main vocalists who all share lead and backing vocal duties. This makes for a diverse sound and an exciting visual performance. Lead guitarist Suzi Gardner took the lead vocals for Monster, preceding Shitlist, which was another crowd favourite. Drummer Demetra Plakas held down a solid and tight groove while peppering her signature snare rolls over the Bricks Are Heavy tracks.

“That concludes the Bricks Are Heavy portion of the evening,” Finch said to the crowd. “As Donita would say, ‘the pressure’s off’.” And it certainly felt like it as the band slid into Hungry For Stink lead single Andres, with Suzi Gardner back on lead vocals with her unique gritty delivery.

As good as Bricks Are Heavy is, it was an early album for the band and came at a time when they were still developing their sound. L7 didn’t start to diversify and venture out of that box until Hungry For Stink, where their sound evolved to include more of a sludgy groove-grunge sound, and they started to experiment with surf rock and more pop and indie rock styles. It was for this reason that the latter half of the set just felt more ‘fun’.

Shove appeased the old-school hecklers in the crowd, and Stadium West off 2019’s Scatter the Rats came as a fun tongue-in-cheek rocker. Their comeback 2023 single Cooler Than Mars rounded out their more recent material, and they finished the set with the 2017 single Dispatch from Mar-a-Lago.

The crowd wasn’t ready for the show to be over and called the band back for the encore of early Smell The Magic tracks American Society and Fast and Frightening, which brought the roof down.

Still going strong after 38 years of being a band, L7 played with style, confidence, and groove that only come from years of playing together. Having lived through such an influential time and location as LA in the 90s and having shared the stage with so many iconic bands of that time, it was exciting to see an act with such rich history perform in one of our favourite local venues and knock it out of the park.

ANTHONY JACKSON

Photos by Adrian Thomson