GR!C: Day 1

I woke up at 5:40 am, raring to go. My sister, Xenia, who has been pretty low-key in expressing her enthusiasm, literally danced into the bathroom singing “Good morning, good morning, good morning to yoooooooouuuu!” in mock opera. She’s ready. We have to travel across town to get there, but boy is it worth it. Ninety minutes and three modes of public transport later, we arrive. Girls Rock! Chicago 2009 is on!

We check in and are assigned our instruments. I get drums, but Xenia gets bass. When she’s told, her face visibly falls. She’s been talking about playing drums all year, and has even worked on some beats to try out. We later learn that forty of the eighty girls picked drums as their first-choice instrument. For the first two years of camp, there weren’t enough drummers to fill every band. Could this mean that girls are becoming less afraid to make noise and rock out? Maybe. But what I do know is that Xenia has her heart set on drums, so I swap with her. I’ll be learning bass this year.

After signing in, we head to the cafeteria (GR!C doesn’t have it’s own space yet, so they rent out a school; this year it’s at Pritzker Elementary, in the Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood) where dozens of girls chat, craft, draw, read and get to know each other. I spot sisters Macy and Zoe, who enjoyed camp so much last year that they’re back for more. “I loved it!” says Macy, “It’s so cool and fun. And I just really loved making music.” I ask Zoe what kind of music she likes these days. “Uh, I don’t really know. Whatever Cake is.” I start talking to a nine year old in neon knee-highs about why she decided to return. “It’s the funnest thing I’ve ever done. And I do a lot of things. I came in third place at a triathlon on Saturday.” 

We head to the gymnasium, and spend some time getting to know our counselors and each other. With over a hundred people and the energy that first day excitement brings, it’s chaotic and fun and super interesting. Then there are workshops for Hearing Protection and Women in Rock History. We’re given pairs of high quality earplugs by Earlove, then take a whirlwind tour of women who have had an impact on today’s female rock musicians. Not all of the women in the presentation could be filed under “rock music,” but all of them had a role in kicking the doors open for today’s female artists. For example: Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s music was gospel-based, but her guitar playing and passionate singing style turned audiences and their ideas of women in music on their heads.

Feeling inspired, we’re off to form our bands. This is the moment that shapes your whole week. Some girls know each other from past sessions or they’re friends outside of camp, so they join up quickly. For others, the process can be accidental; you wind up with someone because you just complimented them on their awesome shoes or because a girl looks about your age or simply because you find yourself standing next to someone that needs a drummer. No matter how many ways GR!C tries to quell the chaos and help you, i.e. by grouping you into genre preferences, age groups, using questionnaires about favorite foods, colors etc., it’s still kind of random, you’re forming a band with total strangers in under twenty minutes. The outcome is always unpredictable.

One year a bassist and I teamed up and somehow wound up without a drummer or second guitarist, so we were the camp’s first ever duet. And it was great! Last year I wound up being the last girl standing without a band at all. It was awful! It was like that pitiful scene in a movie where the kid is the last one picked by the team, which I said through tears to the very comforting ear of Kate Walsh, an awesome volunteer who started with the original Rock ‘N’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland. We laughed about it much later, but that day? So. Not. Hilarious. I had no way of knowing then that it would actually turn out to be my favorite year and that I would fall in love with drums and be in a great band. You just never know, whether it’s your first year or fourth, how it’ll turn out, and that’s what makes this part of the day so unique.

At the end of every day, there’s a performance by a local act; today it’s Tyler Jon Tyler, a band with a unique style that’s just as fun to watch as it is to listen to. Counselors and campers alike got up and danced. We all were drenched by the end of the set. And so, sweaty and smiling, girls said their goodbyes and headed home.