“When I moved from Austin, Texas, back to Minneapolis, I walked away from my job and my record label, and South by Southwest. I had a great job there: Assistant Production Manager. But I’m back in Minneapolis and I’m very happy to be here. But I left behind a lot of stuff that I kind of left, walked away from. But you have to sacrifice some things to move forward or do things differently.”

What Lori Barbero is doing differently is finally saying yes to a Babes in Toyland reunion.


The mighty drummer joined up with her Nemesisters Kat Bjelland (guitar, vocals) and Maureen Herman (bass) after nearly two decades— lifetimes led, mental illnesses tamed, life-altering injuries overcome, motherhood embraced. Consider this revitalization of the threesome that inspired riot-grrrl and ripped the patriarchy a new one a valuable startup: The reunion was sparked by investment team Powersniff, an entity created by ex-Google employees who wanted to see feminist rock rise again.

The investment has been a powerful one; Babes in Toyland played a sold-out show at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip Feb. 12 that brought together some of music’s most valuable players. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine introduced the band reverently. Buzz Osborne from the Melvins and Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile cheered from the back of the room. And most notably, Barbero, Herman and Bjelland fired on all thrusters. The vocals boomed and shrieked as guitars and drums came through like a steamroller. Songs like the throaty “Bruise Violet” and the wonderfully unhinged “Handsome & Gretel” off 1992’s breakthrough, Fontanelle, rang out as though no time had passed at all since these shredders last jammed live.

Yet it had been almost 14 years since a semblance of Babes had played. Herman departed in 1996, later battling an addiction to crack cocaine. (She’s now logged more than 10 years of sobriety.) Bjelland and Barbero split in 2001, with the former inadvertently carrying on the Babes name through 2002. (Turns out the “new Babes in Toyland” was a miscommunication with a European promoter over her Katastrophy Wife project.) But getting back in that drummer’s seat about seven months ago – starting in Los Angeles and then gravitating toward her and Bjelland’s home base of Minneapolis – felt right.

“There’s two things in life I really enjoy: One is going to see live music. Two is playing the music. So it’s just really fun to play again,” she said. “I don’t know, just kind of pick up where we left off, in a much different way. Over 12, well, 13 years for Kat and I, 14 years or something like that. And with Maureen, it’s 18 years. So it’s not like everything was just peaches and cream. There’s a lot of work you’ve got to do. You’ve got to get your personal friendship lives together and make music.”

In other interviews, the members have spoken of initial weariness of getting back together. But when Bjelland’s and Herman’s children started expressing an interest in their past lives as cutthroat performers – and Powersniffer and former coworker of Herman’s Chris Skarakis prodded – the fire was lit. Herman and Bjelland got together in 2013 to consider a Babes comeback (and bond over similar medications used to abate their diagnosed mental illnesses). Barbero came aboard awhile after, a fresh start from her seven-year stint as a South by Southwest manager and occasional drummer for projects such as Koalas, Eggtwist and a partnership with Danny B. Harvey of HeadCat.

Coming back to the skins wasn’t easy for Barbero. A freak accident at a Home Depot forced her into physical therapy in 2013, and she had to retrain her body to drum.

“An employee dropped a 63-pound box on top of me from the top shelf,” she recalled. So I had six months of physical therapy. I was in pretty bad shape. I mean, even still, I have permanent damage. I have constant pain, but it’s not excruciating. Some days are worse than others. But after physical therapy, I learned a lot of different things I need to do on a daily basis to keep me in motion and keep it loose.” She added: “I’m pretty lucky that I can even walk or that I’m even alive.”

Barbero worried that she might be boring in concert because she can’t headbang like she used to. But when Babes conquered the Roxy Feb. 12, there was no need to fret. Her tribal drumming summoned a long-dormant spirit on the Strip, with Bjelland purging her inner demons behind the mic. Herman contributed a steady low end, smiling at every chance she got. The audience returned the gesture, in awe that such a bastion of rock was in full force again.

Babes in Toyland’s reunion is filling a void. Barbero noted that while there’s been an uptick of estrogen in music, those artists aren’t exactly meaty.

“It’s kind of sad because a lot of these… female bands that were in in the ’90s, they were female rock bands. Now, even though there are more female musicians, a lot of them aren’t really rock. They’re just Cream of Wheat,” she lamented. “I like it when women can just throw their balls on the table.”

Barbero is unapologetic when it comes to being a woman warrior. She said she’s never felt like Babes in Toyland had anything to prove (she once wanted to put a bad Babes review on a t-shirt as a badge of dishonor). But even today’s society – whether in the music biz or any other industry – has double standards when it comes to the sexes, according to the rocker.

“Men, if they’re at a business meeting, they can go golfing and go have martinis and go to a strip bar. But if women were at a business meeting and they went to a shopping center, they would be fired in a second,” Barbero said. “If they went out and had wine, bottles of wine at lunch, they’d be fired in a second. It still holds to that.”
Her band has no plans yet to pen new music that would challenge these un-budging standards. But the mere existence of Babes in Toyland is once again rattling the status quo.