Metal, She Signified

Wow, suffragette city! As the latest in our ongoing series of people engaging in metal behavior before heavy metal was invented (see recent post of Velvet Underground in grim corpse paint in the mid-1960s), here’s a gaggle of gals experimenting with cryptic hand gestures in North Berkeley about a hundred years ago. Of course I’m in love with the necromistress in the solid hat, but I’m also making morbid claws in the general direction of the woman with the giant bow tie who seems to be studying and feeling out Madam X’s metallic approach. Perhaps they were psyched, knowing that in 11 more years they’d be allowed to vote. And the rooster?

Photo sampled from the book Berkeley 1900: Daily Life at the Turn of the Century by Richard Schwartz. This is less than a mile from Amoeba Records on Telegraph Ave., modern day spawning ground for Von reissues, Asunder splits, and Master’s Hammer box sets.

Thanks, Mathieu!