As girrrls who emulate and idolize the gals in that ’70s group The Runaways, they have “run away” from their base in Minneapolis to a small town southwest of Eau Claire, come July 27.
The Rebel Queens will be rockin’ with a yell at Elmwood’s UFO Days on Saturday night, and this is definitely not ordinary festival fare, as this band of five women invokes Joan Jett and Def Leppard and Led Zeppelin with grit and even more power, as they rip through covers and several originals. And yes, they have Billy Idol and Rebel Yell on the set list.
— Outside my building, there is roofing going on in this the season of construction. Which means there until the other day was a dumpster in the street’s parking zone and a ladder from the rooftop — this ain’t no rooftop bar, like just down the block — to the curb between said street and the sidewalk. Don’t walk under it, maybe in stroller with your 13-year-old baby like in the Stevie Wonder song Superstition, or there are seven years of bad luck. And don’t lose track of such things if walking back home drunk from The Smilin’ Moose.
So I veered around the ladder and did the tightrope walk along the edge of the curb. Then reminded two young ladies walking the same stretch of sidewalk that its bad for your luck’s health the stay on the straight and narrow, so to speak, of the sidewalk, with what was coming up.
Sure enough, they deviated course from the main part of the walkway, and took a bend with their walk around the ladder. No pieces of torn-up shingle would fall on them. —
These rebel ladies have been known, at least the lead singer, to be poised in an on-motorcycle pose onstage, ala Priest or should I say priestess, and the group isn’t at all bashful at having all its members take their turn doing solos, whether for just a few bars or extended. They place music from some of the harder bands of the ’70s and ’80s, but show variety, and in interviews this ten-year-old outfit has really lit up about taking in a show by the also all-woman group, and influence, Vixen from back in that heyday, and sharing the stage along with a renowned guitarist from Alice Cooper’s band, Nito Strauss, at First Avenue’s Seventh Street Entry. They say they like doing outdoor shows and have also played prominently (twice) at Cadott’s summer Rock Fest, and The Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis. The Rebel Queens at such shows can be a bit saucy and sexy, and although still keeping some of their early glam rock imagery, tone it down a little for family-oriented shows. And they do also get into songs by the plainer Janis Joplin. And back to glam with Aerosmith.
Their songs have gotten plenty of airplay on The Current in the Twin Cities, and at times have been in regular rotation.
The group has kept two consistent members throughout its course, but at other positions has changed players now and then, and the result has been really honing their sound and style. And their relatively new lead guitarist, for example, really kicks it.
But we start with the lead vocalist. You can hear strength with a bit of rasp in her powerful voice that reminds one of Joan Jett, but in some songs, including a cover and adding a bit of wail, she could be the female version of the lead singer from Jackyl. The vocal guts and volume are also like that of a number of other prominent female singers, and at times amped up from that.
They speak of being existential in their lyrics writing of originals, and there is substance there. One of their many music videos shows the group’s members riding down a lonesome country road and stopping on the shoulder to do some singing and partying, and passersby a bit at a time join the gathering until it becomes, as the song sings about in a common theme, a full blown celebration of community and the empowerment that comes with that. During the outtro, a single vehicle is shown driving away, back the other direction.
Another original speaks of not needing to be dependent on a man, financially or otherwise, and going on a cross-country journey without him and finding herself, then returning stronger. This could be singing verse like Miranda Lambert, on steroids and higher voice and snarl.
My favorite, though, is an extended version of a performance at our area’s Doghouse, about a month ago, of Ted Nugent’s Stranglehold, where the guitarist does some creative stuff I’ve seldom seen, and despite going on much longer than even Ted himself, it stays fresh and interesting. She takes more than one turn of sliding her fingers up and down the guitar neck, several times in succession, and in the bit where she rapidly plucks with both hands, she has them held several inches apart, not on adjoining frets. The singer near the end comes in with a wail matching the guitar, ala Pantera’s Cemetery Gates. All around there are stands of roses, a symbol of the band.
There may be a bit of symbolism here, as the song makes reference to wielding of power, and the musicians when not playing their solos take a seated position, possibly showing deference to a masterful performance by one of their mates.