On Friday, Sept. 11, Colorado State University students and Fort Collins locals gathered in Sound Bar, a small music venue on Linden Street. Near the bar, band members mingled and sold merch. Behind the black curtain leading to the stage, eager first-timers and seasoned concertgoers alike gathered, bathed in pink and blue light.
They came for Girls Club, a concert exclusively featuring woman-fronted bands. Near campus, posters for the show had been ubiquitous for weeks — taped to light poles, thumbtacked to the Alley Cat Cafe community board and in stacks of flyers on the counters of The Lyric.
Girls Club was created and headlined by Midriff, a local band formed at the beginning of last year. Since then, they’ve appeared at several Fort Collins venues, including the Sound Bar, The Sun Spot, Aggie Theatre and Surfside 7.
“Our first show was a house show,” Midriff lead vocalist and guitarist Charlee Berlin said. “We played all covers except (for) one song, which is a song we don’t even really play anymore, but we’ve definitely just grown as musicians.”
This was Girls Club’s second iteration and featured — alongside Midriff — Ladybird, The Ontopsies and Lady Preacher. The first Girls Club show was in March 2025, also at the Sound Bar, with a different lineup of woman-fronted bands.
“Sometimes, being at a show where it’s just a bunch of guys, as a girl, (that) can be really intimidating, so we thought being able to have a space for girls to feel, like, comfortable and whatever would be fun,” Berlin said.
Midriff rhythm guitarist Eliza Marolt, said the interconnectedness of the Fort Collins music scene makes organizing collaborations like this possible.
“Everybody in all, like, in the bands, we’re all kind of friends, like, we get to hang out,” Marolt said. “There’s, like, this great community and it’s just somewhere where you feel at home.”
Hailey Jane, The Ontopsies’ vocalist and bassist, explained how her band became involved in Girls Club.
“Midriff reached out to us and asked if we’d want to play — I think just because we were on their radar as another all-girl band — which I think is cool,” Jane said. “We’re very feminist in all the right ways, and, yes, we’re excited to play more shows with all of our peers, regardless of gender.”
Many of the performing bands were formed fairly recently; in fact, the show was Ladybird’s first performance as a band. Several members of the Ontopsies are new to their instruments, which created an opening for experimentation. At one point in their act, Zoe Baumann, who had been on the drums, switched places with Hailey Jane, who was singing.
“Because nothing’s super set in stone yet, we’re just kind of like, screw it,” Baumann said.
That’s not to say that Girls Club compromised on sound.
“Especially in Sound Bar, there’s kind of a real intersection of, like, quality and really cool, kind of lesser-known bands,” said Everett Bithell, who came to the show because he had run sound for Midriff in the past and liked their performance.
Some audience members specifically praised the show’s organizing principle.
“I love that they’re actually, like, showing light to women, and giving women, like, a spotlight,” audience member Rose Chitwood said. “It’s important, especially during this time in America and, like, what’s going on and everything. I think it’s very progressive.”
Brooke Van Buiten, another member of the Ontopsies, emphasized while there is value in shining the spotlight on women musicians, there can be limits to this approach.
“The spaces of women-fronted shows or women focused shows are great — starting with that,” Van Buiten said. “But I think they can also be exclusive for queer people and nonbinary people, and maybe people who don’t necessarily feel like they fit the role of girl or woman.”
Girls Club’s main appeal appeared to be the music, and of course, the fun. Concertgoers remained energized throughout the genre-spanning show, featuring a blend of covers and original songs. The crowd danced to the Ontopsies’ driving, twangy “Horse Girl Whore,” which Van Buiten dedicated to a horse named Stevie Nicks. There was moshing and a tambourine-wielding crowd-surfer to Lady Preacher’s harmony-rich cover of “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi” by Radiohead.
“This was probably the best show of our young career,” Jane said. “We are so grateful.”
Reach Chloe Bjork at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
