Rock ‘n’ roll recharge

Nicolette Vilar is often asked how she responds to heckling during shows. The truth is, the lead singer of Los Angeles punk crew Go Betty Go doesn’t have to respond at all. “I think that’s funny, because we’re so fucking loud—there’s no heckling in rock ’n’ roll, you know?” she said. “If somebody’s talking shit, you just play and pretend they’re not there.”

It would be difficult to get under Vilar’s skin. When the band got together in 2000, she was a high-schooler full of angst, but now 18 years later she says that she performs with carefree joy.

“I feel this rush of happiness because playing music is such a fun and enjoyable experience for me,” she told the CN&R by phone. “There’s nothing like it. The shows have gone so well since we got back together, and I feel so happy up there. I think it shows in my face.”

This mood change is a relatively recent development; Vilar quit the band in 2006, after a long period of discord. Go Betty Go had been touring nonstop and, in retrospect, she says she didn’t make her own health a priority. She wasn’t eating or sleeping well, and living out of a car “started to make me a little crazy,” she said. “We would fight a lot. Once that pressure’s on, everything is a trigger for a fight, and it got bad between me and the girls.”

Vilar left to pursue a career in graphic design and the band continued for a few years with a new lead singer—Emily Wynne-Hughes—before going on indefinite hiatus in 2010. For a time, Go Betty Go looked defunct. But in 2012, a promoter asked the band to play a one-off reunion show; Hughes was unavailable. It had been six years since the split and Vilar could hardly remember why they had been fighting.

“I figured, why not? We had band practice and I remembered the songs,” she said. “I realized I really missed it, so we did it again, and again, and again, and then the band was back together.”

The reunion spurred new songwriting and the 2015 comeback album, Reboot.

Go Betty Go is rounded out by Vilar’s sister, Aixa (drums), Michelle Rangel (bass) and, of course, the band’s namesake and guitarist, Betty Cisneros. They are currently recording and will perform a new unreleased song at their upcoming show at The Maltese this Saturday (Aug. 11). They’ve already sold the track to a movie production company, however, and therefore can’t post it online yet.

Vilar promises that the band’s forthcoming EP will deliver the powerful punk-tinged rock fans are used to, but likely will reflect the band’s sunnier disposition.

“Things are good for us nowadays,” she said. “I’m in a good headspace, anyway. My boyfriend isn’t an asshole, so I don’t have anything bad to say about anybody. So, yeah, we’d like to do something a little more fun and positive. There’s definitely a lot to complain about, but we all need a reason to wake up in the morning. Sometimes it’s good to create some art that reminds you of what it is to be human.”

Today, Vilar says she makes a point of taking better care of herself before shows: “I have to prepare for the energy I’m going to give off, so I go for a good run, do my exercises and prepare my voice, so when I get up there I can be my full self. It’s such a place of joy for me. I’m so lucky to have my band.”