Girlfriends vs. Groupies at Beats, Breaks and Culture

By Jen Houston

As my boyfriend’s band, DD/MM/YYYY, took to the stage at Harbourfront’s Beats, Breaks & Culture festival for a midnight set Friday, another member’s girlfriend and I found a spot near the front. We were ready to dance without missing a beat, as only those who have seen dozens of the unpredictable prog psych-pop band’s shows can, when behind us, a couple of polished indie darlings with identical clichéd haircuts (I won’t tell you which) began to simultaneously fix their ‘dos and elbow us out of their way so they could eyefuck our boyfriends. I knew what they were doing because I may have been caught behaving in the same naïvely-flirtatious way five years ago, though I’d never be rude enough (assertive enough?) to get pushy. They slowly slithered in front of us, but as the band started, fate was on our side, and they were quickly put in their place: a smoke machine turned on and fogged them, gagging them both and forcing one girl to leave the area. Luckily, the other was short enough for us to see over. We danced without missing a beat, relishing our minor victory.

Check out more of Jen’s trials and tribulations as a rock star girlfriend here.