Getting Ugly: Through the Dirt with Worm Girlz

When Meanjin alt-rockers Worm Girlz ask you to do something, you don’t say no. You just don’t.

Which is why, not even 5 minutes into the band’s rowdy, boisterous set at LaLaLa's on 10 August, the entire crowd had their little fingers in their air.

Guided by the band’s lead vocalist Lauren, we wiggled our fingers in wormish unity as we pinky promised to drink water, support Palestine, look out for each other, and always be cool, cunty, and clown.

As we stood there, arms outstretched, tinged purple and blue under the lights, I think we all felt something electric in the air. And what was it? What was that spark?

Total. Worm. Domination.

At least, it’s the first step. When I ask the band – Lauren, drummer Niko, bassist Angie, and guitarists Isabella and Jade – what worm domination means to them, the answer comes easily.

“For us, total worm domination would be being able to just tour around the world, and find our people in each place, no matter if there’s five people… or there’s five hundred,” says Lauren.

Although the show at LaLaLa’s wasn’t quite five hundred people, it was busy, and the band’s commitment to ‘their people’ shone through. Some audience members wore clown makeup in homage to the video for Worm Girlz’ newest song, ‘Get Ugly’, and on multiple occasions Lauren came into the crowd to have a quick dance with a concertgoer, or to pass around the microphone and get others singing along.

The atmosphere was safe, welcoming, and vibrant. The sense of community – the creation of which Worm Girlz identify as a core principle of their mission – was strong within the crowd, and the band’s efforts to make their show a place for everyone to enjoy didn’t go unnoticed.

This inclusivity, of course, is another of the band’s driving principles. According to Lauren, the band align themselves with “three ‘ivities’ – accessibility, inclusivity, and community”.

The fact that only one of these three actually ends in ‘ivity’ is beside the point. Not only are these admirable values, but Worm Girlz are committed to them in a way one wishes all bands could be.

For each show, they have an inclusivity rider, which asks that at least 30% of the acts they perform with be comprised of women, trans or non-binary people, people of colour, or members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Worm Girlz choose their support acts in line with this, and the Wollongong show was no different. Both openers, Blackout Fun Club and Creeping Jenny, were femme-fronted. Although Creeping Jenny held my heart hostage from the first moments of their cover of Silverchair’s ‘No Association’, Blackout Fun Club were bright and groovy, playing an exhilarating brand of surf rock that, along with Creeping Jenny's alt-grunge, set the stage for Worm Girlz’ Wollongong debut.

But overall it was Worm Girlz’ show; suffice to say, they were unforgettable. Part of this is just because it’s hard not to remember a show composed so significantly of worm puns; however, the bigger part of Worm Girlz’ impact is simply down to the fact that they are an excellent band.

On this, the last date of their cross-country mini-tour promoting their newest single after shows in Sydney, Newcastle, and their hometown of Brisbane, the band were tight and energetic, with a seamless rapport. Each song was grounded in driving guitars and lyrically served as a call to arms on the topics Worm Girlz value most, among which are the importance of rejecting patriarchal beauty standards and prioritising doing things for yourself, not others.

Indeed, this is the topic of their latest single, ‘Get Ugly’. The song is anthemic, with an earworm of a chorus (pun intended) that listeners can’t help but scream along to, and it holds its own in their discography of high-energy, hook-heavy singles. With the distinctive clown theme used in both its video and marketing, ‘Get Ugly’ is open in its message of self-love and the happiness that can be found in challenging social norms and, well, getting ugly.

‘Get Ugly’ was the band’s second-last song of the evening, joining songs such as ‘Cool Girl’, ‘Decode’ (a cover of a song by Paramore, who Worm Girlz cite as an influence alongside such acts as WAAX and Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers), and my personal favourite, ‘Jackie’, in a setlist of altogether delightful tunes. They covered such topics as mushrooms, electric scooters, biting off people’s arms, and – most importantly – worms, which makes it all the more perfect that when I ask them what they believe a worm would think if it saw them perform, the band’s response – at least, Jade’s – is this:

“The worm would wriggle; it would do the worm. It might burrow under the dirt to really feel the vibrations, but I think they’d still love us as worms.”

And even if it’s not yet total worm domination, there’s no doubt that’s on the way. After all, if even worms can like Worm Girlz – why don’t you?

Worm Girlz will be playing SXSW Sydney in October this year. For more information, find them on Instagram here!