Tacocat at Soda Bar. Photo by Amanda Martinek.
Blue troll hair, sparkly jelly sandals, silver lipstick and ruffled lace socks. Seattle band Tacocat played Soda Bar on Wednesday night and gave everyone 90’s girl flashbacks.
The show started with under-21-year-old band The Regrettes from Los Angeles, a girl power quartet with the token boy on drums. They immediately charmed San Diego with style inspirations spanning decades. Their music mixed 1950’s rockabilly cooing with 90’s riot grrrl punk snarls, all wrapped up with a modern girls outlook on the world, feminism, and the perils of growing up. Full of energy, The Regrettes rocked and rolled, shouted and laughed, and got men and women of all ages feeling ‘fuck yeah’.
Tacocat took stage next, with a metallic spaceship banner behind them and played instruments covered in bedazzled stickers. The three ladies and token male were decked in all the essential 90’s fashion: rainbow-colored hair filled with scrunchies, oversized clips and cat ears. They wore jelly shoes and ruffled lace socks, girly floral tops and shorts mixed with flannel and acid wash, and neon beaded bracelets.
Tacocat jumped into their pop punk set, greeting us with big, mischievous grins as they played tracks off this year’s Lost Time and NVM, released in 2014. “Dana Katherine Scully” was a fun, paranoid number about the X-Files and “Horse Girls” paid homage to girls who grew up reading books about horses.
Lead singer Emily Nokes pranced around the stage with big swooping motions, wide eyes and a tambourine. Bassist Bree McKenna and Lelah Maupin exchanged amused looks. Guitarist Eric Randall wore a hat that said SAN DIEGO and got accused of being “pandering”, which he deflected by saying he would have to know what that means to be doing it.
They sounded great and looked like they were having a blast. The crowd, consisting of young loner girls and older men who looked like dads, also loners, sang along, smiling and bobbing their faces. We left the show feeling pumped about being women and punk rock and glitter; all the same things I loved when I was 9 years old.