As senior transfem rock correspondent @flaneurfemme was stuck at home with the sniffles last night, I’m filling in on coverage of Transfemme Takeover 5, the latest show in a series running since 2023 that centers transfem-led bands and solo acts local to PDX. Yesterday’s edition took the form of an all-ages punk basement house show at @snakefarmsux. The folks at Snake Farm have kitted out their basement with baffles and quality ventilation, so things didn’t get too sweaty, and the sound was unquestionably better than several “professional” venues I’ve attended in town.
I hadn’t been to a house show in over 10 years so I was a bit nervous that I wasn’t going to be cool enough to enter, but the door person accommodated for those of us with a deficit by giving us cobra hand stamps. (I know this is how it worked, because my dear friend and wingwoman of the night @taylor.tldr did not receive such a stamp, and instead was marked by a tally of her coolness level.)
First up was Olivia Lyon (@olivviamary) playing a solo set. Her songs were meditative, with plaintive vocals and delicate trills and progressions on guitar that started folksy but landed on sneaky jazz chords - complicated, heart rending. Digging back into her insta I see that she usually plays in trio form, and while the stripped down atmosphere was a solid opener for the night I find myself hungry to experience even more richness in her sound.
For You, Always For You (@foryou_always_foryou) followed, with singer and electric banjoist Lillyn alternating between quiet moments of introspection and opening the floodgates of her voice to a deluge of anguish and grief. FYAFY was the most “punk” act of the show - raw, avant garde, stripped down to its core power. Lillyn would get into a clawhammer groove and the whole front row would start twisting and bouncing as the waves of distortion washed over them.
You wouldn’t know that this was the debut show for Garbage Witch (@garbandwitch), and I can’t wait to hear more from them in the coming months. Their style was versatile, polished, loose in a roomy way - serving up punk anthems and train beats and indie rock like nobody’s business. Garbage Witch closed with two covers, one of Ezra Furman and the other I missed in my notes, and band lead Miryam Weiss (aka. garbo) energized the already amped crowd further by teaching us to sing along with the choruses. I wanted to dance so bad to Garbage Witch but the room was packed.
Finally closing out the night were indie rockers and TFT5 instigators themselves, Girl Fiend (@girlfiendmusic). The musical stylings of duo Robin Cook and Elle Archer are what got me attending local rock shows regularly, and now that I’ve been to 4..? Girl Fiend shows and numerous Shaylee shows prior, I feel like I can say Girl Fiend has really found their balance since their formation last year. Shout out to Cook’s strong vocal stylings at this show in particular, and the new drummer (whose name I didn’t catch) brought the energy and tightness that their songs call for. Archer played a stripped down version of “Shaylee Baby” at one point that you could feel charge the crowd with frisson - all of us reflecting on its lyrics about that moment of early transition when you realize your life has been torn in two. Balance that with a number like the tongue-in-cheek, guaranteed-to-headbang “Cum Geyser,” and Girl Fiend’s thesis becomes apparent - voicing the emotional extremes that come from living life as proudly, unabashedly trans and queer.
It can feel like drudgery to elaborate on “how things are” right now as a trans woman in the US. But the thing is, there are still houses being packed to the gills full of rowdy trans girls who want to dance and cheer and feel music move through our reclaimed bodies. The story of the moment is incomplete without that reality, too, and if we dwell on the state sanctioned narrative and stay home and feel scared, we will never tap into the power that comes from congregating and sharing in rage and joy and grief together. TFT5 reminded me how not alone I am, and how talented and capable transfemmes will ever be.