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Matzoh on the Road

Ohio with Girls in Trouble

by
Alicia Jo Rabins
April 07, 2010
(Girls in Trouble)
(Girls in Trouble)

Alicia Jo Rabins is filing periodic dispatches for The Scroll while Girls in Trouble, her four-piece band that plays original art-pop songs about the women of Torah, tours the Midwest. The first installment is here, the second here.

After Pittsburgh, it was on to Youngstown, Ohio, where we played at a lovely new venue called the Lemon Grove. Thanks to our friend Susannah Perlman, we ended up at the Victorian home/vintage clothing treasure trove of Terese. We stopped by her home between soundcheck and the show; the following hour featured all five of us (the band plus Terese) running up and down the stairs, arms full of bejeweled party dresses, feathered caps, boxy leather jackets, and striped suits. Video evidence below.

Needless to say, we all left with a few key pieces.

The show was great—it resulted in our first commission from a Wiccan, quite exciting for me—and afterwards we headed to the home of our new friend David, a wonderful musician and artist who not only did our sound but also hosted us. The music continued into the night, as music should.

And then to Columbus, Ohio, where we were hosted by the lovely Jemimah Robbs and shared a stage with two great bands: Bird and Flower, and Black Love. (Thanks to the other musicians and to Brock for making the show happen.) Over matzoh brie on Jem’s porch in the morning, I asked how she had found out about us. Answer? From the Vox Tablet podcast. Full circle.

And so Passover ends and we continue on our tour of the Midwest, with ever so slightly fewer food restrictions ….

Alicia Jo Rabins is the creator and performer of Girls in Trouble, an indie-folk song cycle about Biblical women. Her book, Divinity School, won the 2015 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize.