This essay analyzes the musical performances of Leslie Mah, biracial lead guitarist and backup vocalist for the legendary all-female, queercore punk band Tribe 8, whose members broke up in 2005 after fifteen years together. Inspired by the recent turn in performance studies toward studies of music as performance, this work employs multiple methods and objects to get at the complex totality of popular music’s performativity. Mah’s macha femme persona, playing style, and performance of identity as a lesbian woman of color within queercore punk music allow her to enter a carnivalesque realm of feminist menace, palpable rage, and unruly pleasure. Mah’s performance strategies and articulations of her queer and biracial identities in interviews are contextualized within feminist performance, riot grrrl, and punk music studies. Tribe 8’s lyrics, music, marketing, and band member personas provide cultural context for Mah’s distinctive performance of macha femme.
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