I’ll be filling this ether-hole every Saturday with stuff about being in a band . . . my band, your band, other people’s bands, cats in bands, and probably some waxing on about cats in general. For the first installment of Band Life, I’d like to get this issue out of the way and then we’ll never speak of it again:
Band vs. girl band: what’s the difference, anyway?
I play in a band. Two of them, actually. And I’m a girl. If I mention that the lead guitarist in one of the bands is a girl, people often assume that the drummer and bass player are girls as well (they’re actually dudes). The assumption makes me wonder if bands are supposed to be like public restrooms . . . like, you should only play music with your own gender. In my other band, all four of us are female so we are often labeled a “girl band.” I’ve had both men and women alike ask me, “How’s your girl band going?” It’s rare to hear someone ask an all-male band, “So, how’s your dude band?” And I don’t think I would ever ask a female friend, “How’s your girl-lawyer job?”