The Linda Lindas • Be Your Own Pet • March 29, 2025 • Kilby Court
Reviewed and Photographed by Amelia Weyerstall
Kilby Court was filled to the brim with fans of all ages, ecstatic to see Linda Lindas perform in Utah for the first time. Young kids were exchanging friendship bracelets as their parents were sharing stories of their favorite times seeing the band; almost a third of the crowd had flown into SLC just to see Linda Lindas at Kilby Court.
Be Your Own Pet
The punk band Be Your Own Pet (aka BYOP) had the crowd headbanging along to every song on the setlist. Their intense vocals and energy shook the venue and even created a small mosh pit in the back half of the space.
BYOP is no stranger to performing, they released their first debut album “Be Your Own Pet” all the way back in 2006. After releasing their second album, “Get Awkward” in 2008, they went on a hiatus of about 14 years. However, when singer Jack White (famously known for being a part of The White Stripes) asked the band to open for him on his 2021 tour, they came back together and released the album “Mommy” in 2023.
Frontwoman Jemina Pearl talked about one song in particular that took a long time to release: “This next song got taken off of our second album for being too controversial, too violent… I don’t know, I’ll let you be the judge of that… we’ll see, this one’s called “Becky”.” The crowd overwhelmingly loved this song and jumped up and down to the beat, headbanged, and waved their hands in the air.
At the end of their set, Pearl was so in the moment that she launched herself into the crowd. It is uncertain whether she jumped into the front of the crowd or slipped and fell into the front of the audience. Either way, she quickly got back up and kept performing, showing true showmanship. The audience was so sweet after the final song and made sure to ask the other band members if Pearl was okay, which turned a potentially scary moment for the band into a super sweet moment, allowing the band to connect with their audience.
The Linda Lindas
The all-female school-age rock band Linda Lindas had the crowd jumping along to songs all night long. Their catchy beats and impactful lyrics left the crowd with a night to remember.
The Linda Lindas are not shy of the spotlight, having appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2021, performing at Coachella in 2023, their song “Growing Up” is on the soundtrack for Inside Out 2, opened for The Rolling Stones, and for Green Day and The Smashing Pumpkins during the Saviors Tour in 2024.
The stage presence of all the members of the Linda Lindas is electric, and their smiles while performing lit up the venue. When sharing their touring experiences, the band said, “We just came from Idaho, yeah we were in Boise, it was cool, we were like talking to this person, asking what’s Idaho known for, and they were like, potatoes I guess? but then she was like, we also do dairy and like tech, and gem mining, and so we were like got to go digging. And we fed giraffes, in Idaho, at the Boise Zoo.” This whole interaction made the crowd laugh and cheer about potatoes and mining. The Linda Lindas are a fun-loving band for sure; while touring with Green Day, there was a full-on prank war between the two bands.
In relation to playing in SLC, before they said, “Um, have we been to Utah before? Does anyone know? We’ve never played in Utah, I don’t think so. Oh, we were with Paramore, no it got cancelled, that’s what it was, sad. but have any of you seen us play before?” The crowd shouted, “Green Day!” and one member of the crowd from LA shouted “Jawbreaker!” to which Linda Lindas replied with “Jawbreaker? LA? We are from LA; this is crazy, what a coincidence seeing you here! But now we have new songs that we’ve put out since then, which is exciting.” The crowd erupted into applause, clearly excited to hear all the new songs live.
The Linda Lindas’ incredible combination of lyrics and instruments create impactful experiences for audience members. With the talented Mila de la Garza on drums, Lucia de la Garza on guitar, Eloise Wong on bass, and Bela Salazar on guitar, their music made the crowd go from dancing and nodding along to full-on headbanging throughout their set.
The fan-to-band interaction was really sweet, one kid made special bracelets for the band members. Wong asked the crowd, “How’s it going… how’s your day been? Did anyone have a really really great day? It was pretty nice. Mila and Bela took a walk in the rain, and we took the train. It was pretty fun; we walked like two miles and then we had to get back here for soundcheck. It was an adventure.” The whole show was very interactive and very special for young crowd members and the band.
The Linda Lindas were also grateful for their touring support and fans, saying, “We love you! Give it up for “Be Your Own Pet”, we are so excited and honored and lucky to tour with them. It’s very cool, they are awesome and very kind, and I hope you enjoyed their set… You’re cool (to the crowd), it’s very inspiring and rejuvenating to do things like this. I hope we do good things with this energy.”
Their song “Nino” is a definite fan favorite, with Lucia telling the crowd, “here’s what we’re going to do, were going to sing Nino’s name and then you’re going to sing his name back to us, and then what’s going to happen is that Nino is going to hear us because we’re going to be so loud, that he’s going to hear us all the way back in LA ok?” The crowd of course
responded by screaming Nino and started off the song with a bang. The Linda Lindas’ show ended with guitars being played behind people’s heads, lots of chanting “Linda Lindas” from the crowd, and of course. The band ended their set with their most popular songs, “Racist, Sexist Boy” and “Rebel Girl”. Leaving the crowd with a headbanging end to their night.