A garage of one's own

Young female rockers command the stage in Warped Tour spinoff

By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff, 10/17/2003

In 1997, Kevin Lyman -- founder of the testosterone-drenched Vans Warped Tour -- invented the Ladies Lounge. It sounds like a glorified bathroom, some sort of rock-concert rest stop for chicks, but in fact it was a table. Lyman, it turns out, was a tad tired of taking flak for running what amounted to a travelling punk-ska clubhouse for boys. Stocked with information about alterna-girl culture -- girls who board, girls who blade, girls who rawk -- the table grew over the years into a tent. The female audience at Warped grew, too. Last summer 48 percent of the tickets were purchased by girls, average age 15-17, and the Ladies Lounge was rechristened Girlz Garage.

Next week, the Garage is going mobile. A gaggle of girls -- and a few incidental boys in the bands -- are piling into a tour bus for the first annual Girlz Garage Tour, a 31-city road trip that opens Monday at Axis on Lansdowne Street.

"This was the year to go out on a limb," says Lyman. "With high-profile bands like the Donnas and the Distillers on the rise, it's an important time for women, and it was time for me to step it up."

The Girlz Garage lineup emphasizes young, emerging artists. Lillix, a comely Canadian foursome, is the best-known and the most mainstream of the headlining bands, with a major-label album (on Maverick) and a WB television theme song (a bouncy cover of the Romantics' "What I Like About You" for the show of the same name).

"This tour is going to be so much fun," enthuses Lillix drummer Kim Urhahn, but bottom line, girl power isn't the main objective for her. "We think the concept is cool . . . but there are a lot of great guy musicians on this bill as well. Most importantly, we get to play music every night."

Also appearing are the Los Angeles-based neo-new wavers the Start, hip-pop outfit Brassy (fronted by Jon "Blues Explosion" Spencer's kid sister Muffin), confessional headbanger Lennon, and New York City rap trio Northern State. It's an impressively diverse lineup, which is exactly what Lyman set out to create.

"It would have been easy to take four girl punk bands from LA and put them on the bus, but I wanted a cool cross section of what's going on right now," he says. "These young bands have to be twice as good and twice as aggressive to crack through because of their gender. I'm trying to get the labels and the venues motivated, but it's like 1995 Vans Warped all over again, explaining it to everyone."

Lyman enlisted the support of the entertainment agency behemoth CAA and struck sponsorship deals with Hurley International, a surf and skate clothing company, and Women Who Rock magazine. He was able to arrange for a majority of the shows to be all-ages events. And although he acknowledges the Girlz Garage Tour has been a tough sell to club owners, Lyman has faith in his concept.

"I'm confident Girlz Garage will find its audience," he says. "Like Warped, it's about grassroots, proactive street-teaming. We're inviting a lot of people to just come see the show this year."

The women of Northern State, who grew up on Long Island and released their much-lauded debut CD last year, look at Girlz Garage as a golden opportunity for both the band and the fans. Grappling with the dual challenges of being white and female in the rap world, the trio have been the proverbial fish out of water, says Robyn "DJ Sprout" Goodmark.

"The first time we went to a rehearsal studio we were the only girls there. The first time we went to a recording studio it was us and a bunch of guys. The advantage is people are intrigued, they remember us," says Sprout. "But before they hear our music or see a live show, they assume we're three goofy girls making fun of hip-hop. The idea of being on a five-week bus tour, which we would never be able to afford at this point in our career, is incredibly exciting. And I know there are legions of young girls out there who haven't heard of us yet."

Of course gender segregation is a double-edged sword. It's a fine line between marginalization and celebration, and in an equal-opportunity world there would be no need for women to band together in the name of marketability or exposure. But the remarkable success of Lilith Fair, which outsold many of the summer megatours during its three-year run from 1997 to 1999, established a viable niche for female-centered music events. And in the case of the harder genres represented on the Girlz Garage Tour, one can't underestimate the appeal of simply providing a safe place for young women to rock out.

"There probably won't be a heavy mosh pit," says Sprout, "and most of the shows are all ages, so I do think there will be a certain unthreatening vibe. There are real benefits to creating a space for young women to come out and hear the music. I know we're not the first women in hip-hop, but we feel a little like pioneers doing this tour."

The timing couldn't be better, according to Dianne Spoto Shattuck, editor of Women Who Rock.

"There are so many image-driven artists and major-label, conveyor-belt stars in the music business right now, it's important for girls to have role models like these," says Shattuck.

Despite the biases and preconceptions women still face in the male-dominated music industry, this generation of female rockers is fortified by a powerful sense of entitlement and an innate grasp of their place -- perhaps best summed up by Lillix's Urhahn.

"Is rock 'n' roll a boy's club? Rock 'n' roll is my club. If boys want to join, that's all right by me."

Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com.