The Linda Lindas are an all-female Asian/LatinX band out of Los Angeles, and came to fame when their performance of "racist sexist boy" at the LA Public Library went viral in 2021. At that time band members were aged 11-17; our girls were 8 and 5. I knew that in a few years, we absolutely needed to take them to see a performance.
We had tickets for the October 2022 Hollywood Bowl show with them, Japanese Breakfast, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I would have loved to have brought the family for some multi-generational Asian American girl rock empowerment. This was during a crescendo of pandemic era anti-asian sentiment, and it would have been so uplifting to be there. But it was a school night..... and we live in San José, so we ended up giving the tickets away.
This past weekend we got to make it so, with the Linda Lindas kicking off their 2025 tour at the Fillmore in SF. There was a strong Gen-X/Millenial vibe and it was cool to see there were a number of other familes like us, kids in tow. Yeah it was a long drive on Friday afternoon. Yeah it was loud and crowded. And yeah the kids complained. But we were able to fulfill a long standing wish, and as parents we were able to provide something I wish I had as a kid: seeing people that looked like me rocking out in the spotlight.
Shoutout James Iha. As an indie/alternative kid growing up in suburban New Jersey, I was so starved for representation that I remember even a remote feeling of "being seen"-ness when Weezer sang about "half Japanese girls". Pinkerton was one of my favorite albums as a teenager, but much later when I learned about Rivers' exploits, my feelings have changed. Maybe a topic for another post.