From @lollipopshoppepdx at last Wednesday's Trans Femme Takeover. See #tfto3 for some videos.
I don't know much about music past eighth-grade cello and how it makes me feel, but @notcomagirl's music and performance had that perfect energy. The kind that injects you with a feeling and keeps it going for the length of the song. Their set was over too soon.
The swagger flowing through @sodajinxpdx was real -- both the trombone crowd work and choosing to compete for attention with an epic Goku/Frieza showdown. (or so I'm told -- I was a Vampire Hunter D/Sailor Moon kid)
@shayleeband's set felt fun and loose -- the trio deftly sliding between triumphant capital R Rock Music™ and the melancholy of trans/queer survival like they always do.
It's a weird feeling sometimes, how my transition has pulled me back into these spaces. Nightlife. Loud music. House parties. Dancing. My old, shitty boyfriend "Over Drinking" lurking in the shadows (we made out on Wednesday but I didn't go home with him). Old complicated memories, being twice as old as the younger 20-somethings finding the world for the first time. Occasionally I feel like I shouldn't be here -- that it's no longer my time.
But then -- how could I not be here? Trans-fronted bands? That are good? A queer co-mingled crowd? The goofiest friendliest pits? These are dreams we didn't even think to have twenty-five years ago, and in a world that keeps dressing up the same cycles of trauma, repression, and violence this sort of joy is vital to survival.
Also, loud guitars are just sick.
A deep, sincere, and cringeworthy (the only way to be) thank you to everyone involved in making these things happen.