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THE DONNAS
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'American Teenage Rock n Roll Machine'
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I saw this cool little band when they were known as The Electrocutes. They opened for Stone Fox, and they had their parents and older siblings at the club cheering them on - and making sure the teenagers didn't drink any beer in this dissolate and sleazy rock and roll bar on the wrong side of the tracks (literally) in San Francisco called Bottom of the Hill (Hi Ramona!). I think the year was 1996.
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Even though the girls in Stone Fox told their friends to show up early to see this band or they'd regret not being witness to a legendary night, there wasn't much of a crowd for the high school rocker chicks at 8pm. But I was there cuz I always do what Jorjee tells me to do. Hell, even Stone Fox listened to themselves and made it a point to be at the club at that very early fucking hour just so they could support these kids.
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And much later into the night Jorjee invited the girlies up onstage (good thing their parents hadn't driven them home yet!) to sing back up on the most sexually charged song in the Stone Fox set list: "The Donkey and The Butterfly". All four Electrocutes passively made their way thru the crowd, which was shoulder to shoulder and wall to wall. I wondered if the teenagers' moms could hear the sexual innuendo in the lyrics....
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Anyhow, it's 2000 and all of a sudden The Electrocutes call themselves The Donnas and have Gene Simmons as a fan, and they've gone on a world-wide tour. What the heck happened??? I guess they finally turned 18 at some point, and all HELL broke loose.
In 1999, while I was visiting San Francisco The Donnas happened to be playing Bimbo's on Columbus Street. Me and Shandi made plans to see 'em that night. I hadn't seen the band since they'd become bona fide rock stars. We left Shandi's pad at around midnight, got to the club in about 15 minutes. The show was already over! Talk about a curfew. Maybe I'm just getting old and no longer understand (or remember) that all-ages-shows start early becuz they have to end early.
The Donnas have also released a rock record called 'Skin Tight'...but I'm not as happy with that one as I am with 'American Teenage Rock n Roll Machine'. Every track on this record ROCKS. Yeah, we've heard it all before. Yeah, there is at least one boy band from NYC that did it better 20 years ago. Yeah Yeah Yeah. But, The Donnas are fun. And it's cool to hear girls do it - the adolescent lyrics, the one dimensional vocals, the fuzzy fucked up guitars, the simple rhythm that some times wavers just enough to make 'em punk but not enough to make 'em suck. No one else has this kind of spirit anymore, so I'm happy that The Donnas exist for my listening pleasure. And I'm happier than a chicken on Thanksgiving Day to know that, if they choose so, maybe Donna R. and Donna C. and Donna F. and Donna A. can be the future of both rock and roll.
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