These female-led rock & roll bands will have you headbanging all over the place

Where are the other Joan Jetts and Blondies? Where are the female rockers taking the music industry by storm? Surprise surprise, the massive genre that is rock & roll isn’t as male-dominated as you’d think. More and more female-led bands are making music and showing the world that they have the right and the power to tear up the music scene.

This summer, Vans Warped Tour traveled coast to coast with a lineup of artists playing everything from punk, alternative, hard rock, and more. But it’s the women of Warped Tour put their blood, sweat, eyeliner, and something extra special into their music.

babe spoke to some of the female-fronted and all-women bands from the 2017 lineup:

Bad Cop/Bad Cop

Bad Cop/Bad Cop are a four-piece rock band from LA. They combine rock, punk, and some really on-par vocal harmonies. Jennie, guitarist and vocalist, puts it simply: “There’s some screaming but has positivity.” Isn’t that all a girl could want? Linh, bassist and vocalist chimes in, adding: “Our stage has become a family, I’m creating a yearbook. Everyone’s been super cool, super nice, it’s really refreshing.” If you’re looking for good ol’ rock & roll put through a blender of pure fun and donuts, Bad Cop/Bad Cop is where you’ve got to go.

Songs to download: Nightmare / Sugarcane / Womanarchist

Courage My Love

This Canadian pop-punk band should be on your “hype me up” playlists. If hard rock isn’t your thing, Courage My Love dances the line between pop, rock, and the spectrum categories in between. Perfect for Saturday night getting-ready-for-a-concert vibes. Twin sisters Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn front the band. Mercedes recounts, “It started with my sister and I writing songs together and just kind of jamming…we literally just started in our attic, jamming and pissing off our neighbors. They’d, like, call the cops on us all the time.” Plus, they’re opening for Simple Plan this fall on their Canadian Tour.

Songs to download: Tough Love / Bridges / Kerosene

Jule Vera

Jule Vera is one of the most pop-oriented of the Warped Tour lineup, but they’ve got a special slow-burn going for them. Their slow jams will have you whispering a single “damn” and their happy-sad bops will keep you deliciously torn between dancing and crying. Imagine if you took Evanesce’s Amy Lee’s vocals, an All Time Low vibe and a dash of Little Big Town country, then put a shiny pop layer over it, you’ve got an intriguing new sound that is Jule Vera. Ansley, the lead singer, talked about how great it was to meet new fans and be exposed to so many different artists and sounds. “Everyone’s really cool,” she says.

Songs to download: Lifeline / Scarlet Letter / Porch Swing

Save Ferris

Save Ferris are the Warped Tour pros as this is the the third time they’ve played. Monique notes that there are a lot more female musicians than when she first started, when she was the only woman on stage. “I remember what it was like before…every day I’d go out there and be scared and be like ‘how am I going to get anybody to take us seriously or take me seriously?’ You know, I’m just who I am.”

Their self-described genre is Ska pop-punk swing, and from that description alone, it sounds like you’re drinking a bubbly musical cocktail.

Songs to download: Anything / Come on Eileen / Golden Silence

War on Women

“Take me, take me, take me…seriously” is the angry, feminist, punk anthem by War on Women that I want to see everywhere. I want it on a shirt, I want it tattooed, and I definitely want it in my headphones as I’m taking down the patriarchy. War on Women is about taking back power through awesome, rattle-the-cage punk. It’s about, frankly, the war on women. “I live in a male-dominated world, I live on a male-dominated planet.” Shawna says, talking about working in a male-dominated industry. “Sometimes the hardest thing is to remember how unfair or abnormal it really is and to remember to fight and speak out against it.” Go listen, then go kick some misogynistic ass.

Songs to download: Effemania / Second Wave Goodbye / Servilla

Barb Wire Dolls

When asked how frontwoman Isis would describe her sound she replied simply, “We’re Barb Wire Dolls and we do rock & roll.” She and the band travelled all the way from an artist’s colony in Crete, Greece for Warped Tour, and they are literal rock goddesses. We’re talking about the nitty-gritty, nothing’s off limits, bring-down-the-house rock & roll. They’re prepping for their US tour this fall, and you won’t want to miss out on their show.

Songs to download: Where Mountains Drink the Wine / Revolution / Walking Dead

@TheTab