Jennifer Bastian
From anger to action: Echeverria, Nelson-Lifson, Begley, Denman (left to right).
When Tessa Echeverria was a college student in Olympia, Washington — a city steeped in feminist-punk riot grrrl culture — the local DIY music community was known for being “woman and queer friendly.” Local bands and audiences displayed an abundance of gender diversity. But after moving to Madison and starting exploring the local scene, Echeverria found the Midwestern vibe quite different.
“When I came to Madison it was a little shocking,” says Echeverria. “It was a good old boys club, to a certain extent.”
Still, the musician made friends and inroads — playing in bands like Jonesies and Once A Month, going to shows and eventually opening a studio, Williamson Magnetic Recording Company. But Echeverria still saw problems with sexism (sometimes overt, but often unintentional) and wanted to do something to foster more inclusion in the scene. Others felt the same way. Last fall, Tone Madison organized a panel discussion, “Consent, Amplified,” to discuss harassment, safety and equity in Madison’s nightlife scene. It was a cathartic and much-needed discussion, but Echeverria and others left wanting to do more.
“There’s all this terrible sexism and racism, and I’m tired of being angry about it,” Echeverria says. “Let’s do something about it.”
Echeverria, Claire Nelson-Lifson, Mary Dahlman Begley and Maggie Denman formed Half-Stack Sessions, a club for women, LGBT and nonbinary folk who play music in the Madison area; the goal is to create “a space for musicians to grow and work towards higher visibility in the music scene,” according to the group’s mission statement. Nelson-Lifson plays in the band Proud Parents; Dahlman Begley in Jonesies and Once a Month; and Denman in Once A Month and Miyha. Denman also works for Frank Productions, handling the booking of local bands for the High Noon Saloon. All four women are involved in organizing local DIY gigs.
Since meeting for the first time in February, the club has grown to about 130 members. Its first public event is a May 13 show at the Wil-Mar Center, benefiting Half-Stack Sessions and Domestic Abuse Intervention Services of Dane County. Performers include local bands Miyha (see story at isthmus.com/music), Jonesies and a solo set from Nelson-Lifson as well as Fox Face from Milwaukee and 4th Curtis from Minneapolis. Though the performers are mostly women, Half-Stack is not billing the show as a gender-based showcase, as sometimes happens. “It’s just a killer show,” Denman says.
The club name, coined by Denman, is inspired by the type of guitar amp that she uses when she plays gigs. A half stack is not quite as loud as a full-stack amp, but if you put a microphone in front of it, the sound becomes powerful enough to fill any concert hall. The group’s first three meetings focused on networking, resource-sharing and musical collaboration. The founders plan to continue raising the profile of local non-male musicians, and hope some new musical projects will also emerge. The most recent meeting was led by local photographer Jennifer Bastian, who’s compiling the experiences of Half-Stack members into a zine that will be available at the May 13 show.
The founders say the response from the local scene has been positive, but they do acknowledge there has been some pushback — particularly from men who don’t understand why women would need a special group. “[The guys] have been salty dogs,” Nelson-Lifson says diplomatically.
Begley, who sings and plays bass guitar in Jonesies, agrees it’s a difficult road to navigate, particularly because there are so many men in the scene who are friends and allies. “But we all have stories about dudes giving us shit,” she says.
The motivation behind Half-Stack is not about calling out individuals — although they’re not afraid to do that. It’s about challenging institutions and upending the cultural norms. “Little boys [are] given guitars,” Echeverria says. “And it’s not that we don’t want boys to play — we just want a more equal footing. Because we are equal and not less than.”
