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BETTY BLOWTORCH
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And then, something awful happened. First, there were rumors a few months later that half the band quit and ditched the other two while they were still on the road. Then there were more rumors that the other two snagged the chick from L7 and some dude, and soldiered on like the rock n' roll motherfuckers they were. And then…well, that's when Blowtorch's enigmatic singer/bass player Bianca Butthole died. Betty Blowtorch weren't around long enough for Bianca's untimely demise as the passenger in a car going way-too-fast to have the same sort of impact on the music scene that Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle's did back in the 80's, but the stories are very similar. Both bands were on the verge of 'making it' in the US, and both lost the one person that held them all together. And both broke up because of it. Hanoi ultimately resurrected 20 years later, but this is clearly the end of the line for Betty Blowtorch, which adds a real poignancy to this already tragic tale. Betty Blowtorch and Her Amazing True Life Adventures is an equally enthralling and sobering rockumentary that tells the whole short but eventful story through vintage footage and interviews, from the band's ramshackle beginnings in the punk rock trainwreck Butt Trumpet (surely the most unlikely major label band of the 90's), through their exciting reinvention as hard livin', hard lovin', leather-clad biker bitches from hell. To his credit, director Anthony Scarpa never glosses over the parts of the story when our heroines acted quite un-heroic, as they did when firing Butt Trumpet founder Thom Bone from his own band, on his answering machine. To add insult to injury, they continued touring with a replacement singer, using Thom's songs. Amusingly, he subpoenaed the band onstage – Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd handed them the papers, and then headed for the hills. The eventual betrayal by drummer Judy Demolish and guitarist Sharon Needles, when they simply took the band van and equipment and left, mid-tour, was pretty wince-worthy as well. It wasn't all cloak and dagger punk politics, however. Once they bought leather pants and switched from the frazzled punk chicks to flamethrowing cycle sluts, Betty Blowtorch took a wild ride on the open road of rock n'roll, and for one brief moment, it really did look like they were going to make it. The bulk of Scarpa's footage of Bianca is from that era, and she blazes with life in her interview segments. It's almost alarming how vivid and immediate she is on this documentary, as if she refuses to let her spark go out. And isn't that what rock n' roll is really all about? The film ends, as it should, with Bianca's death. Lead guitarist Blare Bitch visits the club they played the night she died and recounts how it happened, and that's really all that's left to say. In the extras section, there's additional interviews with all the surviving members of the band, and all of them are still feeling the loss. Again, it's a testament to Scarpa's honesty as a filmmaker to end without resolution or spin. Not all stories have happy endings, after all.
Betty Blowtorch were
rare diamonds, indeed – an all girl band that could actually rock harder
than the boys. This loud, raucous, probing, exhilarating, and
heartbreaking documentary is a fitting tribute to them and their
ill-starred front woman. Highly recommended. |
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- Sleazegrinder |
I
remember seeing Betty Blowtorch when they rolled – exactly like
Hell on wheels – into Boston during the sole US tour in 2001. There were
fireworks, tattoos, tits, chainsaw punk-metal riffs, and many, many songs
about fucking. They were like every dumb adolescent wet dream teenage
Sleazegrinders conjure up come to flashing, crashing, thrashing life. I
looked around the crowded room and saw, clearly, that Betty Blowtorch were
going to be big news. Everybody was in love with 'em, and the real
kind of love, hard rock love. That night, they were everybody's favorite
band, of all time, ever.