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Betsy Ross appears along with 16 other bands on Soaking Up the Good Fla. Sunshine Vol. I. See the lineup TheHoneyComb

"We met through a mutual friend," recalls Gross. "She asked me to give her and all her little show hoe friends a ride home. I had this big ol' van and they all piled in. And Betsy was sitting behind me rapping Vanilla Ice. But rapping it faster yet smoother then that Vanilla guy. So I turned to her and said, 'Hey you. Yea you. We're starting a band.' "

Gross recruited another ex-Lung - drummer Chris Goldbach - and enlisted programmer/sampler M.C. Dan to help flesh out the tunes that made up the early Betsy Ross repertoire. Featuring the backbone of Gross' insanely catchy but heavy guitar riffing and Goldbach's powerful precision (yet danceable) drumming, Betsy Ross amazingly and immediately brought back the music and spirit of Collapsing Lungs when the band debuted in April 2000.

Gross and Goldbach were original members and performed on the group's 1994 Atlantic Records debut, Colorblind. [SEE PHOTO] A band truly ahead of its time, Collapsing Lungs splintered in the mid-'90s with the band's two singers splitting to start their own successful projects (L.U.N.G.S. and Nation of Fear; Crime Cassara later formed his own self-named group and now fronts Mary Tyler Whores). Gross and Goldbach returned to Radiobaghdad, the never-say-die punk-rock band they'd been in since '88. By the late '90s, Radiobaghdad had released four albums and toured the world numerous times. Goldbach later recorded and toured with underground indie punk icons and Hopeless Records recording artists Against All Authority and later formed Irish Car Bomb.

Betsy was not intimidated by playing with these rock 'n' roll veterans ("Pete's so goofy it's hard to be scared of him," she says). She's too young to have seen Collapsing Lungs in its heyday during the early '90s, when the band battled Marilyn Manson for supremacy of South Florida and a ticket to the big-time. She was, however, a big fan of Against All Authority. "AAA was always one of my favorite local bands," she says. "I used to go see them at Squeeze all the time - so to be working with someone from a band I looked up to so much was cool. ... I never thought about singing in this kind of band, though. I always wanted to do something more on the punk side."

But the Betsy Ross project was a full-fledged foray into the rap-metal movement. Gross envisioned the band as "the female answer to Fred Durst" and Limp Bizkit: "A hot chick who could out-rap him and outwit him and maybe even smack him around."

The lyrics of the first few Betsy Ross tunes (including the group's self-titled theme song) were actually written by Gross. His tongue was firmly planted in cheek when he penned: "If you touch my booty, I'll judge you like Judy / Like Martha Stewart, turn ya into chop suey ... I'm you're worst nightmare, I'm a bitch with a mic / I'm Betsy Ross." Complete with a riff from the Star Spangled Banner, the catchy Betsy Ross is still the band's most recognizable song. In the chugging industrial thrash workout Fort Lauderdale, Gross managed to get inside the head of a Broward teen, bemoaning the county's lame state of affairs: "I can't remember the last time I went to the beach / the parks are polluted and the teachers can't teach."

But Betsy (thankfully) soon took over the lyrical responsibilities, injecting her proto-feminist rants into the band's volatile mix. "I've always written a lot - not just lyrics but any time I wanted to vent about something and didn't feel like talking to anyone I'd write everything I was thinking, all the shit I was going through," she says. "And that's pretty much what my lyrics are: crazy shit that happens to me."

She uses October One as a soapbox against sexual oppression, issuing a stern warning with swaggering contempt. The song's about "sick fucking people taking advantage of little girls," Betsy relates. "People that have been abused, not just sexually, but in any way when they're little. They're not always so right in the head later in life. So it's about how they come back to return the favor. 'It's perverts like you who make 'em want to see blood / I knew someone like you, he haunts me 'til this day / And if he wasn't already dead, he'd be well on his way.' I think that says enough."

In Soon Enough and Special K, she explores male-female relationships. "Soon Enough is about an ex-boyfriend I stayed with for too long." she says. "He treated me like shit, told me what to do, what to wear, who to talk to, and I put up with it I guess because I was young and stupid. But no matter what that person did to me I was always there when he needed something. It's sick to think about really. Special K is about my friend who was going through the same shit I already went through and it made me sick to see her so depressed. It was me all over again, so I tried my hardest every day to get her away from that." The last song the band completed before playing its first show was the Ministry-esque Detonation, complete with drum machine and rapid-fire metallic riffs. All six songs are on the band's self-released CD, available on the merch page.

With management and Web site firmly estabablished, the final piece of the puzzle was a bassist. In stepped Megacriss, a diminutive but bombastic bassist who grew up jamming with the cream of the crop of the South Florida metal scene. This new dose of feminine rage and flair completed the potent Betsy Ross brew, and the band was soon ready to play live. Betsy Ross played its first gig on April 17, 2000, at the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale along with local faves The Groovenics. "There's something promising in Betsy Ross' street-urchin-meets-jaded-rock-musicians-twice-her-age vibe that will warrant further investigation in the months to come," wrote Jeff Stratton, music editor of the Broward/Palm Beach edition of the weekly South Florida entertainment newspaper New Times. "A nice touch: Before the first song had ended, Ms. Ross checked her pager at least twice," Stratton wrote in his April 27 Bandwidth column. [MORE PRESS]

"There is a tremendous pride in the local music scene down here," says Gross, who remembers all the highs and lows of the past decade. "The major change is that bands really know they have a chance to get out of South Florida and make it big like Nonpoint and New Found Glory. And their fans know they can really make a difference and help their band make it. If anything the scene is more serious and 'real' than ever before. There is nothing unreal or sell-out about trying to make it huge. People who call out that shit can kiss my ass." As far as Betsy's place in the scene goes, Gross is not shy, of course: "She kicks ass just like our scene does. She's going to explode out of it."

The original Betsy Ross lineup

The band's second gig was a headlining date in June 2000 at Fort Lauderdale's popular FuBar, where local metal heroes Nonpoint cut their teeth. Unfortunately, this was to be Goldbach's last show with the band as his duties with AAA along with family responsibilities took precedence. Malcolm Z filled in on drums for the next eight months but his more laid-back, jazzy style did not match Goldbach's powerhouse approach. Betsy Ross returned to Culture Room on Aug. 24, then played another strong local bill the next night with Endo and Blindsyde at Spanky's in West Palm Beach. [SEE PHOTOS] It was the shy MC Dan's last live appearance with the band as the keyboardist/sampler returned to studio work and his solo electronic projects. The band was forced to resort to taped loops and samples to add an industrial sound to the mix.

By late summer, Betsy Ross had attracted the attention of Palm Beach County promoter/entrepreneur Steve Rullman of TheHoneyComb.com, who booked the band to open for Seattle industrial rappers SMP on Sept. 1 at Respectable Street Cafe. Betsy Ross returned to Repsectables in West Palm on Sept. 24 for a very special SWARM, the local music showcase that Rullman has been promoting for several years. All the bands on the bill (Betsy Ross, Pank Shovel, Plutonium Pie and Al Is Well) featured females in prominent positions in their respective bands.
[SEE PHOTOS]

Megacriss, Pete and Betsy in September 2000.

Betsy Ross was one of dozens of bands (including MCA Records artists Nonpoint and Darwin's Waiting Room) to participate in a special all-ages show on Sept. 29 protesting the proposed ban on under-21 patrons at Fort Lauderdale nightclubs. There was a huge turnout for the show; unfortunately, the ordinance passed.
[SEE PHOTOS] Betsy responded by putting together her own all-ages concert at Club Q in Davie to protest the Fort Lauderdale ordinance. The Nov. 22 "Freedom Fest" featured six other bands, all with band members under age 21.

In December, Betsy Ross was invited to perform at the annual City Link Music Fest, a huge showcase in downtown Fort Lauderdale sponsored by the weekly South Florida entertainment newspaper. Unfortunately, the invitation had to be rescinded when the city refused to allow even performers under 21 in clubs during the event. "Because we operate in the city that time forgot, festgoers won't be treated to 17-year-old female rapper Betsy Ross or bass-playing phenom Felix Pastorius, the 18-year-old son of the late jazz legend Jaco Pastorius," City Link Music Editor Jake Cline wrote in the the annual music issue, published Dec. 6. The band closed the year with another small show at Club Q on Dec. 23.
[SEE PHOTOS]

The year 2001 was a roller-coaster ride for the band. It started with a poorly-attended gig at Fort Lauderdale's Metal Factory. By February, Malcolm Z was let go and Tony Tomasino was behind the drum kit. Tomasino, who also played for Palm Beach County industrial/hardcore/metal band Monkey Paw, is a versatile veteran of the South Florida scene. His hard-hitting style was a welcome addition and finally filled the gap left by Goldbach's departure. Also joining just in time for a March 8 gig opening for Nonpoint at Orbit in Boynton Beach was guitarist Gerald Brown, a former bandmate of Tomasino's and most recently a longtime member of West Palm nu metal band Gonemad. Along with the first two gigs with Goldbach, this was perhaps the highlight of the band's young life. More than 1,000 people packed Orbit to see Nonpoint and there were already at least half that many there when Betsy Ross took the stage. [SEE PHOTOS]

But this was to be Brown's only gig with Betsy Ross as he decided to pursue his own new projects. More changes were coming. Megacriss, the band's first and only bassist, split from the group, playing her last show on March 30 at Spanky's as part of a seven-band bill featuring The Groovenics, Gonemad, Pank Shovel, Monkey Paw and Blindsyde. Another huge local crowd of 500 was on hand for Slammie promoter and Betsy Ross manager Jim Hayward's birthday bash. Tomasino then decided to concentrate full-time on Monkey Paw, although he agreed to return as a fill-in drummer for special occasions, such as Betsy's Birthday Bash on July Fourth.
[SEE PHOTOS] His last two shows as permanent drummer were the April 12 all-ages Spring Break bash at Culture Room (featuring The Groovenics, Simplekill, Headca$e and No Way Out) and the April 13 CD release party for Pank Shovel (also featuring The Groovenics) at Respectable Street. As Megacriss and Tomasino exited, new bassist Nick joined the cast of characters, moonlighting from his regular gig as the evil, blood-spewing Nicodemous in demonic Fort Lauderdale goth-punk-metal act Death Becomes You. Nick welcomed the change of pace. Sans makeup and DBY's over-the-top image, he enjoyed the opportunity to "jump around and act goofy."

One constant among the uncertainties surrounding Betsy Ross during this period was the camaraderie with TheHoneycomb.com and Pank Shovel. At the April 13 gig, Genny from Pank Shovel jumped up on stage to join in on backing vocals during "Betsy Ross." [SEE PHOTOS] Betsy Ross was invited to be part of TheHoneyComb's 17-band compilation CD, Soaking Up the Good Fla. Sunshine Vol. I, along with such disparate local artists as Pank Shovel, The Groovenics, Legends of Rodeo, Mindlikewater, Disconnet and The Rocking Horse Winner. October One was selected to appear on the release and received many positive reviews. According to the CD's liner notes, "Not only does young Betsy take absolutely no shit from anyone, she uses October One as a soapbox against sexual oppression, issuing a stern warning with swaggering contempt."

When asked to name one band she looks to for inspiration, Betsy doesn't hesitate: "I like Rage (Against the Machine) a lot. If we could write songs like they do, when you know it's about to go off and it makes you want to go crazy and break shit, I'd be a happy girl."

Look out, Fred Durst.