Day Party Crawl

White Mystery (Photo by Shelley Hiam)

Girls Rock Camp Austin

With the positive reviews the new Runaways movie has been getting during South by Southwest, it was a shame Joan Jett canceled her trip last-minute. Still, Friday afternoon she was there in spirit, a guitar she'd signed resting on a table by the entrance of Cafe Mundi, young girls with pink streaks in their hair and black combat boots eyeing it longingly. That's what Girls Rock Camp Austin has become, a place where girls and women can join forces and form alliances in a male-dominated scene, like the Runaways did three decades earlier. Locals Darling New Neighbors and Akina Adderley brought accordion-pop and blues, respectively. Japan represented with the 1960s pop sounds of Chatmonchy and heavy metal geishas of Bo-Peep. White Mystery, Chicago garage rock guitarist Alex White and her brother on drums, peeled out of Detroit, 1968, like the White Stripes with better hair. Jett was also there in spirit during Girl in a Coma, the San Antonio trio signed to her Blackheart label. When singer/guitarist Nina Diaz gets that wild look in her eye, her voice reflects all that's inside, but she still manages to lead the group's pop-punk parade with passion and poise. Who could ask for better role models?