We Are Familia

Among the 150 or so attendees, Go Betty Go seem a favorite topic of barroom and parking-lot conversation, and the girls receive adulation from just about everyone in the club. Whether mere shlubs ogling the sinuous, hip-shaking Nicolette, or hopped-up rockers gassing on the urgency and dynamism of the music, few ears stray from this band. The intensity and joy in the performance is remarkable, since Betty's sick and Nicolette has slaved late at the hated day job. But as they bear down with the fierce aplomb characteristic of their songs ("I'm not hungry tonight, don't feed me that lie/Don't hold me don't touch me/I'm not feeling lonely"), all that tiresome crap evaporates. The mostly Anglo crowd goes ape, chanting, "Otra! Otra! Otra!" when they finish the set.

It's another climactic moment for Go Betty Go, and there's a calendar full of more of the same. They've finally agreed to a recording deal, on the punk psychobilly indie Split Seven, for a compilation track and an EP, with Helmet/G. Love affiliate T-Ray set to produce. And, of course, there're dozens of fast-approaching club dates. They wouldn't have it any other way.

"It's such a wonderful feeling of friendship, and I feel like for the first time in my life I'm completing something worth working for, because the music is so good and we have so much fun," Nicolette says. "It's not like high school or the dumb jobs I've had. What's worth working for is art and music. When I paint and when I sing with Go Betty Go, I know what makes me happy.

"People always say, 'Oh, when you make it you can do this and when you make it you can do that,' but what is that? We're doing it now, and whatever happens to us from now on, I feel like I've already made it."

Go Betty Go play at the Echo, Monday, March 24, and at the Cobalt Café, Wednesday, March 26; seewww.gobettygo.com for more dates.