Donita Sparks preview

Donita Sparks & The Stellar Moments
Double Door, Chicago
Friday, June 13, 2008

If you check the Double Door Web site for info on Donita Sparks & The Stellar Moments’ gig, you’ll notice it says “ex-L7” in parentheses behind Sparks’ name. It’s a safe assumption, considering the grunge band haven’t released new material since 1999’s Slap Happy or toured since 2000. A wise man, though, once said to assume is to make an ass out of “u” and me.

Because L7 are not done, just inactive. At least that’s the story Sparks, who co-founded the group with Suzi Gardner in 1985, is sticking to. “As John Lydon says about the Sex Pistols, I reserve the right to do L7 whenever I want to,” she told Venus earlier this year. “Right now I don’t want to do it.”

What she does want to do is create a solo career. Transmiticate, her debut, was released in February on her own Sparksfly label, and the current tour is her first headlining trip with backing band, The Stellar Moments. Drummer Dea Plakas also played (plays?) in L7, but don’t let that trick you into expecting Transmiticate to be an L7-like album. Sparks’ singing, specifically her acid-trip tremolo, make “Infancy Of A Disaster” familiar territory, and there are still plenty of fuzzy riffs on songs like “Fly Feather Fly” and “Into The Hi Fi,” but Sparks’ solo material sounds more from the heart and less from the adrenaline gland. “Need To Numb” is a spunky, poppy-type number; “He’s Got The Honey” is nearly dancefloor-worthy; and “Curtains For Cathy” and “My Skin’s Too Thin” could be called ballads!

Grown up? Hard to say about someone who once hurled her tampon into a concert crowd, but maybe.

The Prairie Spies, Fever Marlene, and Waste open.

— Trevor Fisher

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly