How much difference can one “s” make?
In the case of the Iron Maidens, it changes the gender but not the music of influential heavy metal British band Iron Maiden.
Billed as the world’s only female tribute to Iron Maiden, it is one of dozens of all-female rock bands at this weekend’s four-day Power Box Festival in Darrington. Featured performers include Vixen, Girlschool, Doro, Kittie, McQueen, Jaded, Jaggedy Ann, Benedictum, Pretty in Stereo, Vice Squad and Rocket.
Iron Maidens has opened for KISS, Snoop Dogg and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, among others; earned several awards for best tribute band and in individual categories; and appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and in two MTV videos.
The band’s Web site describes the sound as “Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell had a love child with the Red Hot Chili Peppers whilst head-banging in South Africa.”
Drummer Linda McDonald, also in Phantom Blue and Little Dolls, became aware of Iron Maiden early in life.
“I was sent home from school for four days because I was misbehaving, and I had nothing else to do except raid my wonderful brother’s record cabinet,” McDonald said. “It quickly became all Iron Maiden all the time. What stuck out was the ‘Made in Japan’ album, live. That was it; it was a sealed deal. I decided I wanted to play drums like that.”
Vocalist Aja Kim came to metal a little later than other musicians.
“I had gotten to the point where the music I was doing wasn’t satisfying me from a musical standpoint. Then I joined the band (in 2004) and really started getting into it,” Kim said.
Before Iron Maidens, she toured and recorded with Tower of Power guitarist Bruce Comte, and worked with saxman Clarence Clemons (Bruce Springsteen), bassist-vocalist Marco Mendoza (Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake), and others.
The youngest performer is 23, but the appearance of mascot Eddie/Edwina marks the oldest of the group (“Eddie is at least a couple of hundred years old … His image is about as famous as Mickey Mouse’s,” Kim said.).
There’s a lot of theater in heavy metal.
“Not only is there the wonderful landscape of the music but there’s the Devil, the Grim Reaper, a few versions of Eddie, fake fire. The hardest part is that there’s so much theatrical stuff (that) you don’t want to get distracted watching your own show,” McDonald said.
For Kim, Iron Maiden’s music is “so complex and so challenging and it’s not music that’s expected of women musicians to play. All the women in the band are really about pushing themselves and transcending gender prejudices.
“We’re not seeing a lot of women playing metal but we’re out there playing music, not just relying on sex appeal. We don’t work that angle. Unfortunately, a lot of time for women it’s part of the criterion and if you don’t match the Pamela Anderson look, there’s even more prejudice.”
Girls tell band members that discovering Iron Maidens “has given them permission to explore this music and see it as not just purely masculine music,” Kim said.
“I never really liked Iron Maiden because it was so masculine. Now I can appreciate the composition and songs and the beauty of the music itself,” she said.
In addition to her vocal talents, Kim has a black belt in shotokan karate.
“My son was getting bullied in school and I wanted him, a beautiful human being inside, to learn to defend himself. I have an Asian background so I understand what martial arts teaches, and it’s not just fighting,” Kim said.
She started karate training, too.
“I’m as passionate about my karate as I am about my music. Artists are sensitive people and the world hurts us. A lot of artists are on drugs because they don’t have the defenses to stand against it. Karate gave me strength in a good way,” Kim said.
“And it made my show more powerful. The training taught me I could do more than what I thought I was capable of. It’s almost inhuman what it takes physically, mentally and musically to do a show, and karate gave me the extra tools in the toolbox to do it.”
Power Box Festival
What: All-female rock bands
When: today through Monday
Where: Whitehorse Amphitheater, Darrington
Featuring: dozens of female rock and metal bands including Little Dolls, Ozzy Osbourne tribute band; Rocket, ’60s girl-band innocence meets ’80s hair metal bravado; Vixen, one of the most successful female rock bands in the world, four singles in Billboard’s Hot 100; Doro, left her band Snakebite to join the heavy-metal band Warlock; Kittie, Canadian alt-metal band with a hit single.
Tickets: $100 four-day pass, $40 one-day, $50 four-person camp site
Purchase tickets: TicketsWest, 800-992-8499; or Safeway and QFC stores.
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