She Wants Revenge, in concert to start your most likely hectic week. One of my favorite discoveries during the Golden Era of My Space in 2006, She Wants Revenge stood out and became instant addicted listening. Much to my surprise, I found out they were actually a Los Angeles (well . . San Fernando Valley) band. Although L.A. is far from being a musical wasteland, I was becoming disenfranchised over what I felt was becoming a certain complacency and lack of exploring in almost all genres. Contemporary music has always felt, to me, like a shark; constantly in search of food in order to stay alive. Los Angeles, in fact most of the Southern California wasn’t doing that for me at the time. Seattle was still a go-to town and Tijuana had become, in 2006, a hotbed of collectives and musical exploring that helped put Mexico on the radar.
So with My Space it became a no-brainer to go discovering what the rest of the world was doing – and it was surprising and reassuring that music during the new millennium was in good places everywhere.
And then I stumbled across She Wants Revenge almost by accident. It was my assumption they were from the UK or Sweden (another country up to their eyeballs in new and interesting music). And it wasn’t until months later I discovered She Wants Revenge was from, of all places, the San Fernando Valley. The cool detached and mesmerizing vocals of Justin Warfield – the straight ahead, abstract and almost literary lyrics and the floating dark-cloud of rhythm that encased each song in a box of discovery – made for relentless listening on my part. Truly, one of those bands that jumped the line and became required listening.
But, true to suspicion, She Wants Revenge became big in Europe and frustrated in the U.S. – going through a period of break-ups, reunions, a hiatus and eventually calling it quits for a while. They did all of us a favor by getting it back together in 2022 with the promise of more recording and a 2022 tour.
This concert is one of the reassuring by-products of that reunion. It bodes well for a future and, fingers crossed, they keep it going and look at the big picture. Because they have something to say and because the audience is catching up.
Essential that you support them any way you can: Soundcloud
