(muffled people chatting)
- When did I first hear about Taco Sauce?
Probably about a year and a half ago,
and it was just this band that came out onto the scene.
I'm like, who is this?
(electric guitar music)
I was like, huh, I could see myself playing in this band.
- Now? Okay hi, we're Taco Sauce
and we are your entertainment for this evening.
(crowd cheering)
(punk music)
I started playing guitar at about 14 or 15,
and mainly just acoustic guitar.
It wasn't until probably three or so years ago
that I started trying to play electric guitar again
and gaining all of the very difficult skills
you need to be a proficient
and technically skilled electric guitarist.
(electric guitar music)
I had always wanted to do a girl punk,
like Riot Grrrl punk band, but it was hard for me
to find a format that would work for me.
I had heard about Izzy and I had known she played bass,
so I hit her up on Instagram.
I was like, hey that's cool you play bass.
I'm actually trying to start a girl band.
You want to come jam?
- Yeah, New Year's Day, 2018.
She showed me what she had, we jammed a little bit.
Things started working and immediately I noticed
we had pretty strong musical chemistry.
(cymbals and drumming)
- We just settled into it and started working on music
and started playing shows and it just kind of,
like blew up pretty quickly.
(punk music)
It kind of gave me a space to explore these other
very femme brown girl centric ideas
that are difficult to express in other platforms.
Every time I saw another woman respond to that
and be like, "Yes, that's what I'm feeling."
"I'm glad somebody said this."
I was like, okay, this is working.
Let's keep kind of exploring these ideas.
It was really easy to aim towards
very political, social ideas from there on.
♪ Don't believe in the will of God ♪
♪ Not sure I buy into karma
♪ Don't have faith in fate or meant to be ♪
- [Dessa] They're definitely bringing
something new to Tucson.
♪ Something deep in me believes ♪
♪ That the accident on your bike ♪
♪ Is directly correlated to you ♪
♪ Telling me to take a hike
- With Taco Sauce, it's its own genre
and it doesn't stay in one style.
It's not punk, it's not rock and roll, it's not Latinx.
It's all of these things combined and created.
♪ Maybe if you said sorry
- It's nice because I don't feel like we've been
pigeonholed into a certain genre or a certain kind of sound.
A band that inspired that in me was Queen.
They all came together and Brian May was this metal head
and then Freddie Mercury liked opera.
They all kind of came together and just did what they felt
like playing and played what they felt like playing.
That's how I kind of feel about this band.
(punk music)
I've pretty much listened to rock and roll my whole life.
When I was 13, 14 getting into the New York Dolls
and T. Rex and stuff, the fashion really spoke to me.
It's all part of the artistry of rock and roll.
I don't think of rock and roll
as just musical notes, you know.
It's the culture, the attitude, and everything.
♪ And where are you from
♪ Who said that you could go
If I go out to a show, I'm going
to wear my coolest outfits.
If I'm going to go on stage for my own show and be like,
I'm going to put on my punk hat now and dress grungy.
That's not me, you know?
No, I am super femme.
I am super fashion forward.
I'm going to be me and even more
elevated on stage, you know?
It has gotten more elevated.
We're kind of at the point where we wear sparkly underwear
and nothing else on stage sometimes.
Lik at our Halloween show, I think
that's pretty much what we all wore.
It's because that's who we are and who we want to be.
I think that is still punk.
We're doing exactly what we want to be doing.
It's just not exactly what you're used to seeing.
♪ Up yours
♪ Screw you
- when I think about not wearing a lot of clothes on stage,
I don't think about looking sexy.
I think about being shocking and like Lady Gaga, you know?
I want to be able to be as feminine as I want to be
and still be taken seriously as a musician.
♪ Heads or tails with the devil ♪
♪ 'Cause heaven is forever with you ♪
- [Izzy] And I kind of want to subvert the idea that
in order to be taken seriously as a rock musician
that women have to not care about what they look like
or not wear too much makeup or dress
in a way that's not too feminine.
- When I'm behind the drums of any kind
while I am serving looks (laughs)
I feel the most comfortable in my own skin.
Within the past two years, I've been really bringing
more thoughtfulness to what I wear,
how I present myself, all those different things,
especially being a trans woman.
I have to definitely consider all of the things I do
up until a performance.
(drum beat)
It's most recently when coming out
that I've been able to express myself fully.
The missing component where I am now
is the most powerful for me.
(crowd cheering)
- [Woman] Wow, everyone.