Worm Shot’s Instagram bio reads “girl band, Reno nv!!!”
In those four words and three exclamation points lie the band’s cultural identity, origin story and general attitude to their music. It’s a purity of phrase any music journalist would envy, but it’s certainly not the whole story.
Comprised of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Baylor Luckey, drummer Gina Hoàng, guitarist Liv Rogers, and bassist Cierra Randall, Worm Shot got their start in 2022 when University of Nevada, Reno, students Luckey and Randall decided to start a band “for fun.”
“I had heard Liv’s name around a lot, because she’s just known for being very talented,” Luckey said. “And so, I was kind of shy and being like, ‘Oh, do you want to play in my band with me pretty please?’ We weren’t very close at the time, but she said yes. And then Gina was hanging out one day also, and I did not know her very well. But she mentioned one thing about the drums, and I hopped in really, really quick and was like, ‘What if you played drums in the band also with me?’”
The members of Worm Shot coalesced around an independent love of the Holland Project—the uncontested incubator of Reno’s musical scene and youth culture.
“I think that a big part of my passion for music came from the Holland Project and being able to see live shows and feeling like that was accessible to me,” Randall said. “I’ve been going to shows, like, my whole adolescence, and for some reason, I just never had crossed paths with them, even though they’re all girls who go to the Holland Project. We ended up just connecting kind of later in our lives.”
Watching shows at the Holland Project gave the bandmates a like-minded community of young people to fuel their passion for music and introduced them to other bands and venues in the local DIY scene. Friendships like this, they said, have been integral to their journey.
“The people around you are the people who are going to help you,” Hoàng said. “Having a lot of friends has given us a lot of opportunities as well.”
But going from the crowd to the stage also came with a steep learning curve. Two months after playing their first show ever at Luckey’s house on a homemade stage, they were asked to headline a sold-out show at the Holland Project with another local band, Charity Kiss, and touring act Mom Cars.
“It was our first Holland show. We had, like, a 20-minute set, and we’d all been playing our instruments for four months—it was really scary,” Randall said. “And then, like, every single time you play a show, it’s just different and better and less scary and less stressful.”
In the two years since, the band members have carved out a place in the Reno scene with their local brand of riot grrrl rock and indie grunge, drawing inspiration from bands like Veruca Salt, The Breeders and Kathleen Hanna. Their recorded catalog is slim so far, consisting of their debut single “Dream Girl” on Spotify, which was released with an accompanying music video in February.
“Dream Girl” is a fun, frantic ballad about a crush with murderous intentions—a hilarious juxtaposition with the music video’s Valentine’s Day-on-a-budget theme. The single sounds DIY in an endearing way, with rapid chord changes, a tight drum pattern, and a bouncing bassline that fans of classic punk will recognize immediately. Luckey’s voice is clear and capable while her bandmates provide cohesive harmonies, and Rogers’ chosen guitar tone paints the whole track with more of an indie shimmer than classic rock fuzz.
Worm Shot is set to release a five-track album on Aug. 1, Skin, Bones, Virtue.
“We recorded the EP in Sacramento with Earthtone Studio,” Hoàng said. “And we just pumped out three songs that are, like, my personal favorites in one month, so we’re going to record those too with Earthtone.”
But even as Worm Shot is finding momentum in their hometown scene, they’re regularly reminded of a simple truth: There aren’t a lot of girl bands around.
“Growing up in the scene, there was no female representation within any of these DIY bands, unless they were touring or coming here, but nothing really local,” Rogers said. “I think that a really big driving force was just to, like, bring the girls into the music scene.”
As part of their mission to inspire more women to pick up instruments and join the scene, the bandmates said that one of their favorite shows was playing for a crowd of young girls as part of the annual G.I.R.L.S. Rock Reno summer camp at the Holland Project last year.
“It made me feel like I’m having a much larger effect on people than I think when I stand up here, and I am singing with confidence and I’m playing with confidence,” Luckey said. “It’s more than just, ‘Oh, that band’s cool.’ It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, look at them go. I can do that with my friends, and we can make music together, because that’s what we want to do.’”
Even though more all-female bands have popped up in Reno in recent years, the members of Worm Shot said they still have to contend with misogyny in the music scene in many forms.
“Being an all-girl band of 20-something-year-old girls, who goes up onstage and wears matching outfits, and maybe plays a song with only two chords—people are often kind of mean and not super respectful of us,” Randall said. “I feel often like I’m being talked down to or infantilized, or people are like, ‘Oh, that’s so cute that you’re in a band with your friends.’ Like, would you say that to a man?”
But to Worm Shot, the antidote to critiques of everything from their gender, to their music, to their outfits is simple and profound: They don’t care. Not in the “fuck you,” stick-it-to-the-man kind of sense (although, sure, there’s some of that as well); their attitude is simply to rise above the handwringing over what it means to be a “girl band.” Instead, they revel in the joy of being girls in a band.
“Our goal for the band ever since we started was just, like, we want to have fun,” Rogers said. “I mean, sure, getting famous would be awesome. But I think right now, we’re just having such a great time being friends and being a part of this awesome music community and just having fun with it.”
For every guy in the front row explaining how they’re playing their instruments wrong, there’s a five-hour jam session in the garage where they’re laughing their heads off about what he said. For every skeevy dude drooling over four women onstage, there’s a little girl who sees their show and wants to pick up a guitar with her friends.
“The No. 1 greatest thing about being in an all-girl band with your best friends is that you always have somebody to fall back on,” Randall said. “So when people are mean and condescending, and they say negative things about the music that you make, I just, like, turn around and look back at my three amazing girl bands go who are so talented and wonderful. I wouldn’t feel as safe and secure with if they weren’t right there with me understanding and feeling the same way I am.”
The members of Worm Shot are young; they’re friends; they’re in a band; and they’re having a blast. Everything else comes second.
For more information, visit www.instagram.com/worm.shot.