As I waited for Le Butcherettes to take the stage at Pappy and Harriet’s, I had a flashback to the 2014 show at the Observatory where I first laid eyes and ears on Le Butcherettes.
Le Butcherettes are on the road with At the Drive-In; this was a side gig in between supporting dates.
Teri Gender Bender, aka Teresa Suarez Cosio, never disappoints—but I was a little worried, because this Mexican dynamo has surplus energy that potentially meant I would be squeezed like a grape against the stage as she drenched her powerful spirit on the crowd.
I again thought of that 2014 show. A pit barrier then kept my camera and me free of slamming admirers. But this show at Pappy’s was not sold out, so I was not too concerned about flying bodies.
I ran into to Michael Reiter, a music super-fan who is always a few steps ahead of the flock when it comes to emerging acts. The show started promptly at 9:30 p.m. with no opening band—and the band was bathed in red light. Teresa was wearing a tight-fitting olive jumpsuit more suited for the local Marine base than a rock show, but she was here to let her music speak for itself. I heard a female voice from the audience screaming, “I love you.”
A switch went on as we heard the first note of the baking-hot “Burn the Scab” from Cry Is for the Flies. Her face went from a happy smile to a demon possessed by music that would scare the villain driver in “Hitch Hiker,” one of my favorite tunes—which, unfortunately, was not on the set list.
To my relief, the crowd was very mellow, with no mosh pit and no pushing and shoving, which has been the norm as fans try to get close to Le Butcherettes. Teri Gender Bender did not climb the walls or columns, nor did she walk on the bar. Is this a sign of a more-subdued Bender? Not really: Her body and limbs glitched like a robot zombie who was about to fail mechanically, only to be jolted by a bolt of energy as Teri Gender Bender swapped between keyboard and guitar. Halfway through show, she escapeed the confinement of the jumpsuit—dramatically emerging like a butterfly from its cocoon, wearing a red dress.
Le Butcherettes sprinted through their 12-song set which included “Boulders Love Over Layers of Rock” and “Witchless C Spot.” With the show nearly over, Teri said: “Muchas gracias para esta noche te creemos mucho, mucho.”
By then, the crowd was in full Le Butcherette love mode, as Bender teased with the first few guitar notes from “Henry Don’t Got Love,” which got a pitch-perfect a capella response to the next few notes from a male audience member. She retorted with a few more notes—and unleashed one of the band’s most popular songs. Drenched in sweat from 50-minute set, the band walked off the stage to cheers.
A chant of, “Otra, otra!” came from this bicultural crowd but there would be no encore for this brilliant show.
