Queer Southern rockers Thelma and the Sleaze take a victory lap at El Rocko

Nashville’s Thelma and the Sleaze, the world’s greatest all-female lesbian Southern rock band, are screeching into El Rocko on their self-described “Victory Lap Tour” with support from Savannah alternative rock band Basically Nancy and punk rockers Manarovs.

Thelma and the Sleaze (the name is a play on the 1991 feminist classic film "Thelma & Louise") combine southern rock with the 70’s glam of David Bowie and T-Rex, the New Wave keyboards of The Cars and Sparks, and the heavy metal riffs of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Some of their recorded releases include the These Boots Won’t Lick Themselves EP (2013), F*ck, Marry, Kill (2019), and their latest album, Holey Water (2023).

Thelma and the Sleaze are led by vocalist and guitarist Lauren “LG” Gilbert and features a revolving line-up of sleazy musicians who have earned endearing nicknames such as “Snowflake,” “Hot Sauce,” and “Coochie Coochie.”

“I give everyone a nickname, partially because I feel like being in this band is liberating in a way,” explained Gilbert. “I feel like having your own persona inside this band, especially with so many people coming in and out, it’s nice to know you have a character inside a story. Maybe you’ll be here for a week, or maybe you’ll be here for a couple of years, but you do have a role and mythology.

Also, there are a lot of creepy people on the road, so it’s better not to give them your real names.”

Gilbert has character to spare. With a raspy lived-in southern twang in her singing voice, rippin’ guitar chops, and rowdy cowgirl/biker looks, Gilbert commands the stage with down n’ dirty sexual swagger. Gilbert tried to build upon this image in a hilarious pilot for a proposed series about Thelma and the Sleaze. The pseudo-autobiographical show is a part-scripted, but all-true look at a day-in-the-life of Gilbert featuring her selling merch by the roadside, cooking beanie weenies in a crockpot in the front seat of her RV, the Taj Mah Y’all, and a funny anecdote about hanging out with Bill Murray. She still carries the $50 bill he gave her for good luck.

“I won’t say my persona inside Thelma and the Sleaze is disingenuous or not an accurate representation of who I am, but it’s definitely a side of me,” said Gilbert. “There’s a caricature about it that I’m aware of, but I think getting to relish in the more ridiculousness of it is kind of the idea behind the pilot. I don’t know how other people do it, but I think it’s more liberating to have a persona as a performer. There are aspects of the band that are very genuine, like my lyrics and my songwriting, but I also get to be onstage in my cowboy boots and my hat and my bikini.”

When she’s not touring, Gilbert also co-hosts the “Queen of Sh*t Mountain” podcast where she has interviewed remarkable women in the music industry such as Brenda Lee, Juliana Hatfield, and bassist Tracy Wormworth of The Waitresses.

“When we started there weren’t a lot of artists-on-artists interviews, and I’m not saying it was revolutionary, but it was one of the first ones where you got those intimate conversations,” said Gilbert. Now it happens all day long.

"I feel like my interviews were different in a way because I did a more Howard Stern approach where I did a lot of research and tried to get people to be really honest and open about their experiences as women in the music industry. I think it’s important to see that there are a lot of different ways to develop a career and to find success. I wanted people trying to come up in the industry to hear those stories.

"I think it’s important to hear someone like Kate Pearson say, ‘We were getting paid $500 in the '80s in the B-52s and we were barely getting by,’ and the fact the bands in 2022 still make $500. I think that’s good information to have.”

Gilbert tried to spin the podcast off into a gameshow called “Gear Time Live” where musicians could talk about their favorite equipment. Gilbert’s personal favorite piece of gear is her custom Gibson SG electric guitar that she calls “Fancy.”

“At this point it’s a Ferngully of mold and sweat and blood and scratches,” said Gilbert. “It’s a real representation of how much I’ve worked in the last 10 years.”

After 10 years of constant DIY touring, opening for artists like Eagle of Death Metal, L7, Shovels & Rope, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, and Brittany Murphy, Gilbert is ready to downshift gears.

“This is sort of a farewell tour,” explained Gilbert. “Not in the sense that I’m quitting music or that Thelma and the Sleaze isn’t going to be a band anymore, but in a sense that for the last 10 years I’ve been touring relentlessly, 120 shows a year, and kind of the exact route every year. It’s become more and more of a struggle, financially and mentally, managing all of the things that go into those things.”

After this tour, Gilbert is planning on returning to her roots as a solo artist. Although she loves performing with a full rock band, in the future Gilbert is looking forward to letting her unique voice take center stage without having to shout over electric guitars.

This may be the last time for a while to catch Thelma and the Sleaze in their full power trio form, so don’t miss them and the rest of this excellent line-up of bands at El Rocko.

“I’m calling it the Victory Lap Tour because I’m an ass,” Gilbert said with a laugh. “If you’ve liked the fact that I get in a van with a bunch of random bitches and tour around the country aimlessly for little to no money and go with the wind and roll with the punches, if that’s something about the band that was exciting, it’s kind of the end of that era for me and Thelma and the Sleaze.”

If You Go >>

What: Thelma and The Sleaze w/ Basically and Manarovs

When: 8 p.m., May 18

Where: El Rocko Lounge, 117 Whitaker St.

Cost: $13

Info: aurafest.com

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Queer Southern rockers Thelma and the Sleaze take a victory lap at El Rocko