On this, the very first recorded output of 7 Year Bitch in 20(!) years, the band has unearthed a live recording from the tour of their final record, Gato Negro. Comprising all their best and most loved songs, this plays like a greatest hits retrospective. Kicking off with “24,900 Miles Per Hour,” the band was raging from the get-go. Led by vocalist extraordinaire Selene Vigil and recorded in front of a hometown crowd, the band was on fire and the professionally recorded tape shows it.
“M.I.A.,” the band’s lament to fallen Gits vocalist Mia Zapata, shows the band at their fiercest; this track was always a crowd pleaser. Even twenty plus years after it was recorded, the song never fails to generate some type of response. My personal favorite “Hip Like Junk” gets a raging rip-through and never loses any of its intense energy. “Rock A Bye” follows along the same path.
These girls rocked as hard as L7 and made more of an impact than Babes In Toyland, but they never got the same amount of respect, swallowed up in the sinkhole of grunge alongside bands like Flop, Love Battery and Seaweed.
After working their way through the highpoints of their catalogue, the band went out with a bang with “Kiss My Ass Goodbye.” The show finale “Kiss My Ass Goodbye” is a really great kiss off to everyone who’s ever pissed you off! This band was always a great grunge band that never got their just rewards. But hopefully with this release, those rewards will start coming their way. What a great way to showcase the majesty of grunge in Seattle circa 1996.
