or a while there, it seemed like the pursuit of rock and roll was a huge research experience in the dirtiest library imaginable, filled with jacketless books covered in unidentifiable food stains. One kept it up, but the smell was bad. The bands seemed to all be full of depressed college students who rarely got laid and didn't enjoy it when they did. A chorus of 'woe is me's' from people who seemed to consider themselves your intellectual superior. That's not fun. You can't dance to that.

Then, in a blink it was over. Good old stupid party rock came crashing back down. Kids were once again singing about getting drunk, laid, and loose. You have to sit up and listen when this call to the bacchanal screeches forth from four teenage girls named Donna.

I met them when they played with NYC's own Toilet Boys at Lust for life. As one of the Toilet Girls (Cheerleaders for the Toilet Boys) I was sharing a dressing room with them, and I was slightly intimidated at the prospect. These 'American Teen-age Rock and Roll Machines' seemed hedonistic beyond their years, and they could communicate this in a set of twenty-five words or less. Would they be surly and punk? Would they call me an old bag? Would I look into their fresh young faces and see how obsolete I had become?

As luck would have it, the first encounter occurred while I was in a state of undress. "Great show!" I blurt out as I try and pull my t-shirt over my head. The littlest Donna grins up at me and slyly states, "We have got to talk about your eye shadow."

"We have got to talk about your eye shadow."

The crowded, sweaty dressing room immediately turned into a slumber party. They looked through my make-up bag. I looked through theirs. We struck much common ground. The Toilet boys got into it. It struck me then that they were not 'special' because they were young girls performing rock and roll. They reached out into the young girl in all of us. Every person involved in this arena was searching for a way to remain teenagers forever. I don't know if the Donnas could articulate this, but they could certainly understand it.

I'm not a rock critic. If anyone wants to know about the quality of the show they'll have to check them out for themselves. I can only say that a smile never left my face from the moment they took the stage to the moment they left.

Their make-up was really good too.

Back to the Top