The all-female rock trio known as Baby In Vain wrapped up a very successful U.S. tour at The Echo in the Silverlake district of Los Angeles, Tuesday night August 11th. The tour included opening dates for The Kills as well as a slot at the prestigious Outside Lands festival in San Francisco. Their headline performance at The Echo was their last, before returning to their home city of Copenhagen, Denmark.
The trio quietly took the stage just after 11pm, on a sleepy sultry summer night, looking a bit like street kids from Hollywood. The three girls aged 17 to 20 have remarkably been making music for five years already. Lead singer and guitarist Lola Hammerich, looking a lot like Christina Ricci’s little sister, sheepishly stepped up to the microphone and spoke softly in halting English introducing the band. Suddenly the trio, consisting of two lead guitar players and a drummer sprang to life playing hard rock in the vein of the grunge era. Lola’s little voice became a vocal powerhouse as she sang frantic lyrics that sounded like they were written by an old soul, belying her youth. Meanwhile she played some lead guitar riffs that would impress the most discriminating advocates of male dominated hard rock.
Benedicte Pierleoni, who began the band with Hammerich as a duo, lad down a thundering drumbeat. The newest member of the band, Andrea Thuesen brings a whole new dynamic to the band’s signature sound by playing a dual lead guitar and also trading off on lead vocals with Hammerich, as the two meshed together perfectly in a cacophony of slick feedback drenched guitar sounds. At one point Hammerich played so violently she broke several string on her guitar and had to switch to a new one with no guitar strap. She didn’t miss a beat, holding the microphone and continuing to sing the lead as she swapped out guitars and finished the song holding the guitar up high without a strap like the old folky 60’s style when electric guitars were first introduced to folk music.
Later Hammerich quipped “Does anyone want to buy an amplifier? We paid 300 dollars for it and just want to get our money back because we are leaving tomorrow and can’t take it on the plane back to Copenhagen”. Their plight elicited a chuckle from the audience, mesmerized by the bands musical prowess. The band ended their hour long set with one of the first songs they wrote, over five years ago, “Until The Day I Die”. Hammerich belted out the dark lyrics of the song, with the sincerity of someone twice her age, with a wealth of life experiences to emote about. The song devolves into a guitar drenched jam that characterizes Baby In Vain perfectly. The trio is back in Denmark ready to use the long dark winter to complete their first album. Hopefully they will return to the U.S. soon to share their fascinating sound with their exponentially increasing American fan-base.
