Alice Bag presents "Violence Girl: East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage"

Modern Times is thrilled to welcome Alice Bag, reading from her new memoir, "Violence Girl."

Thursday, December 8: 7pm


Alice Bag was the lead singer of the Bags, the first female fronted punk band to play the Masque during the West Coast punk revolution of 1977. "Violence Girl, From East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage" is the story of her upbringing in East LA, her eventual migration to Hollywood and the euphoria and aftermath of the first punk wave. "Violence Girl" reveals how domestic abuse fueled her desire for female empowerment and sheds a new perspective on the origin of hardcore, a style most often associated with white suburban males.

The proximity of the East L.A. barrio to Hollywood is as close as a short drive on the 101 freeway, but the cultural divide is enormous. Born to Mexican-born and American-naturalized parents, Alicia Armendariz migrated a few miles west to participate in the free-range birth of the 1970s punk movement. Alicia adopted the punk name Alice Bag, and became lead singer for The Bags, early punk visionaries who starred in Penelope Spheeris’ documentary "The Decline of Western Civilization."

Here is a life of many crossed boundaries, from East L.A.’s musica ranchera to Hollywood’s punk rock; from a violent male-dominated family to female-dominated transgressive rock bands. Alice’s feminist sympathies can be understood by the name of her satiric all-girl early Goth band Castration Squad. "Violence Girl" takes us from a violent upbringing to an aggressive punk sensibility; this time a difficult coming-of-age memoir culminates with a satisfying conclusion, complete with a happy marriage and children. Many personal photographs energize the text in remarkable ways.