L7 @ The Gov, Adelaide 12/12/2023
Tuning through a radio station of the best songs out in ’92 and you’ll hear Jump Around, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Achy Breaky Heart, Mysterious Ways and Enter Sandman. That is the sound that greets fans tonight at The Gov as the opening tape plays. A reminder of the greats of thirty0 years ago. There was also one other band who had hits that year and they are to here to play their smash album, also from ’92, Bricks Are Heavy in full. Welcome L7.
Opening with the menacing Wargasm and Scrap, the Californian punks are playing the album not just in full but also in order and the two opening numbers sound as brooding as the impending knife fight they were always intended to be.
Vocalist Donita Sparks, with fan blowing in her hair like a 90’s music video, is self-deprecating and honest when introducing the next song, imploring the venue to shut the doors as the usual classic show closer Pretend We’re Dead is third up. The joy of playing an album in order.
However, it works as the audience engage enthusiastically in the song and that energy is kept for Diet Pill with its foreboding message and the vocals change to fellow six-stringer Suzi Gardner.
Musically while the band may well be a SoCal punk group with origins back in the late 80’s, underneath you can hear the slower grooves of Sabbath, the rock n roll of Motörhead and the attitude of The Runaways rolled into the explosive cocktail that is L7.
The band themselves seem to be enjoying themselves after bassist Jennifer Finch takes vocal duties on Everglade and you can visibly see Sparks and Gardner smiles of delight.
The album Bricks Are Heavy was a breakthrough for the band back in ’92 and everyone jigs and dances around to what would mostly be tunes from their youth, a time that influences who you are, your outlook on life and how you manage it. L7 songs pull no punches, and neither should you.
Mr. Integrity has the audience chanting again while Shitlist is epic with strains of ‘you’re on my shitlist’ reverberating.
After the album run finishes, part two of the set appears and the band throw out classics one after another throughout their history over the next hour, totalling twenty two songs.
The band loosen up a little more, the songs get steamier, as everyone is reeled in by chanting Andres before the energetic Fuel My Fire unleashes. It’s the bands ability to remain punk but also have hooks you can’t escape that make them different from others as Stadium West shows.
The glam vibes of Fighting The Crave, the swing of Bad Things and the fist pumping Shove make the show fly by without realising that you’re at the final number, the appropriately titled Fast and Frightening.
L7 hit a mark back in ’92 that many did not – and while I hate to mention it – in a male dominated industry. They were fore-bearers and literally kicked the doors open for other artists, possibly more marketable artists, in later years. Often those that break the chains can be lost in the bright lights, not tonight, a raucous Adelaide crowd appreciated the legends in front of them. It seems L7 appreciated them back too judging by their reaction.
Live Review By Rob Lyon