L7 and Sweet 75, The Met Cafe, September 18, 1997

I prayed that this show would be devoid of Nirvana freaks wanting to get close the Krist Novoselic and instead focus on Gailk Greenwood's home town appearance, and luckily my dreams came true.

Sweet 75, the new Krist Novoselic band, plays more wandering songs than his former band.

I hate to compare, but the catchy hook was missing. It may be brilliant on CD, I haven't heard. Also the PA sucked pretty bad, or the mix was off, the singer Ms. Yva Las Vegas could barely be heard. At one point between songs she said, "Just pretend you hear," because it was obvious nobody could.

Krist played 12 string guitar most of the time but did switch to bass for a few songs. I was standing as Yva's feet so I copied down their set list- they did most every song on their new CD, plus a country tribute song to Dolly Parton that was almost funny, but did get people bobbing back and forth in unison.

I'm sure if we could have heard it better we would have enjoyed it more. Nobody hated it too much- there were no boo's and plenty of applause, so don't rule it out if you get a chance to check it out.

L7

After their set L7's tech guy went from speaker to speaker, wire to wire, and amp to amp making changes and testing shit. It took forever, but when he was done L7 came out and kicked Providence right square in the ass for their whole set. It was a b last from beginning to end.

From the opening "Andre" through the finla song "Lorenza" the ladies played the hell out of their set. Of course it being sorta new bassist Gail Greenwood's home town show they got a great response. Between songs Gail would say hello to friends, ran t about how Providence bands and clubs kick ass over Boston bands and clubs, and generally ham it up.

The crowd was peppered with people like her sister's friends, old teacher (some old dude by the door), and even somebody sporting a Boneyard t-shirt to show he's been with Gail from back in the day.

They did lots of new stuff from "The Beauty Process" like, "Drama," and "Bitter Wine," as well as their best like "Deathwish," "Shitlist," and "Prentend that We're Dead." Gail Greenwood is the most energetic on stage- she flops her long hair from sid e to side and jumps around all over the place. Donita and Suzi don't move around that much, but its because they're too busy cranking out the shit. Donita is a great drummer and she played the whole show with a huge grin on her face.

Punk, metal, sludge, whatever you want to call it L7 has been cranking out some of the best for like 12 years. Gail Greenwood's addition to the band has worked out really well and I'm glad. Donita shows no signs of getting tired of it all and the ba nd is tight as hell. I hope that the band has more time to visit Providence because they put on a great show.