Coming down like a Wrecking Ball
The Witching will tear down your misconceptions
about women in rock
 In
my review
of The Witching’s show at NXNE, I wrote rather
pretentiously about how the whole rock/punk thing developed
over the years. The bottom line with that is with each
new or developing genre, there will always be some over-chopped
music store employee who will use it as an excuse to
wank, or a bunch of hipsters will use it as an excuse
to climb on stage and flip off the audience like they
are the first band to ever cop an attitude. And that
gets so tired. Guitar solos and attitude absolutely
have their place, but if it gets in the way of the rock,
then the whole thing becomes less about the music than
about the ego of the person playing it.
So when a band does something – anything –
new with this genre, it is cause for some excitement.
The Witching, from Ithaca, NY, has a lot going for it
in that respect. The band plays with the kind of aggression
and intensity – and the crunchy riffs - that has
its roots with bands like AC/DC and Black Sabbath, and
is usually identified more with unchecked testosterone
than a band made up with all women. Singer Ruby Beil
says crowds can really respond to that.
“We get a lot of fans that are ‘pumped
up’ rather than ‘intimidated’ by us”,
she says. “We definitely have some hard core fans
that are into the aggression. It’s a release for
us and I like it to be a release for the audience, too.”
Like their show at the Bovine Sex Club during North
By Northeast. “The crowd was great. They definitely
had that energy to give back to us,” recalls Beil.
That, despite the early set time (9 p.m.) -- the crowd
didn’t even have enough time to get liquored up.
I’ll admit, when I saw the band, I was struck
by just how complete their sound was, particularly the
fullness of the drums. There can be times with female-dominated
bands, where they are rounded out with men doing the
louder stuff. Yes, I realize that’s a stereotype,
one that I do hope will become less and less prevalent,
and one that Beil says they try to address. But when
the band formed, she says, it was a chance to play in
a different kind of group, as she had never been in
a band with all women before.
“We formed the band excluding men intentionally,
but that was more to work with women, like an experiment,”
says Beil. “I’ve always been in rock bands
with all guys, which were great experiences, but I wanted
to try something different. We can’t really separate
ourselves from the ‘women in rock’ category,
but we do try and address those stereotypes in the music
that we do.”
Part of the band’s appeal is Beil’s vocals
and stage presence. Her unorthodox vocals are a little
schizophrenic, suddenly changing registers, making little
noises that go beyond the basic rock n roll howl. It’s
actually hard to describe.
“You can describe it any way you want to, really,”
Beil says of her individual style. “I’ve
just been singing all my life. My basic approach to
singing is to use my entire range and push the limits
as much as possible while still, at least sounding”
– laughs – “like I’m still in
control. But sometimes my voice kinda takes over.”
The band plans some shows around New York state, and
hopes to record some of their new songs in a follow
up to their 2003 self-titled release.
-- Keith Powell
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