Reel to Reel: The Gits Live at RKCNDY – L.A. Premiere

The GRAMMY Museum is thrilled to welcome the L.A. premiere of the documentary The Gits Live at RKCNDY to the Museum’s intimate 200-seat Clive Davis Theater. The evening will feature a short screening of the film and a panel discussion moderated by Jasen Emmons with Filmmaker and Director Doug Pray, The Gits Bassist Matt Dresdner, and The Gits Guitarist Andy Kessler. 

ABOUT THE GITS LIVE AT RCKNDY

A blistering short set by early 1990s Seattle punk band The Gits fronted by the incomparable Mia Zapata filmed just a few months before she was murdered. Filmed at the famed RKCNDY club in January of 1993 for Doug Pray’s documentary “HYPE!” about the explosion of the Seattle music scene on the world stage. This previously unseen footage has been lovingly restored and beautifully edited to provide an intimate glimpse of this legendary band in their prime.

ABOUT THE GITS

Mia Zapata of the Gits was the greatest rock singer of her time. This is not hyperbole; if you ever saw her, you know it’s true. She was likely the greatest singer in punk rock history, the woman who married the 78 and the ’78. Tragedy did not make this true. Mia Zapata made this true, and the ferocious, spring-loaded shrapnel frame built around her by Andy Kessler, Matt Dresdner, and Steve Moriarty made it true.

Mia Zapata (1965 – 1993), the vocalist and front person for The Gits (1986 – 1993), was not the type of voice one usually associates with a punk rock band. She had the sizzle, sass, shriek, grace, rasp, and fury of a classic blues shouter (what if Janis Joplin had fronted Fugazi, we ask?). There was a purity and accuracy to her voice. She could simultaneously point it at the stars and scoop cigarette butts off of the venue floor. It sounded like a voice on fire, desperate and angry, pleading and commanding, all at the same time (what if Amy Winehouse had fronted Fugazi, we ask?). And her onstage persona was utterly devoid of bullshit: Mia Zapata was a rag doll, a stick figure, a sock puppet, alternately bent with sadness and arched with rage. Sometimes, she looked like she was in pain, clawing at an ulcer; other times, like a holy woman on a soapbox, testifying the joy of truth; and still other times, like someone draped in a bedtime t-shirt reading from the margins of her notebooks. The voice and the presence were extraordinary, and there was nothing like it anywhere in punk – it was like finding the missing link between Nina Simone and Johnny Rotten (what if Joss Stone had fronted Fugazi, we ask?).

Much of this story takes place in Seattle during the strange night fog of the early 1990s, but did that matter? No. The Gits were beyond era or place. Maybe that’s why they were one of the most important acts to emerge from Seattle during that time. The Gits defied any categorizations – were they ferocious post-hardcore sideways-metal screw-propellor punk rockers? Some cross between Iron Maiden and an SST band? And although Mia Zapata was undoubtedly a once-in-a-generation talent – a wrapped-tight urchin/ingenue/artist applying a shredded Bonnie Raitt blues-rasp perfect-pitched alto to tight punk rock – the band matched her and inspired her to double down. Andy Kessler (guitar – metronomic and furious), Steve Moriarty (drums – martial and explosive), and Matt Dresdner (bass – fluid, punching, beat-addicted and melodic) wrote and performed with a jaw-tightened fury, a clenched soul that shrieked and stomped with precision. The Gits were an angry, inflamed slinky fully in tune with the Bessie Patti Smith of her time, truly the only singer who could summon Joplin, Poly Styrene, Sam Cooke, Iggy Pop, and Ian MacKaye all in the same goddamn song.

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*Physical Valid ID Necessary for check-in.

Member Check – In: 6:00pm

Nonmember Check – In / Doors: 6:30pm

Show Time: 7:00pm

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BAG POLICY: please note that only bags 9 inches x 6 inches and smaller will be allowed for this event. Vinyl, memorabilia, gifts, etc. will also not be allowed inside the building.   

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