Jemina Pearl performs with her band at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago, Ill., on Feb. 6, 2010. | Photo Credit: Audrey Leon

With one listen to Jemina Pearl’s solo debut album Break It Up, one might wonder if the ex-Be Your Own Pet vocalist had lost her gritty, punk rock edge. Yet, when Pearl climbed onto Beat Kitchen’s stage on Saturday, all doubts were erased.

I’ll come right out and say it — Jemina Pearl is better live than on record. Pearl’s solo effort Break It Up offers up much cuter fare than her work with Be Your Own Pet – not lyrically, but definitely musically – with tracks like the misleadingly upbeat tune “I Hate People,” which features the legendary Iggy Pop, and the cutesy rocker “Heartbeats,” both of which were played Saturday night.

When Pearl and her band of fresh-faced (read: baby-faced and extremely young-looking) backing band appeared on stage, they exploded on each note of every song as Pearl wiggled, twisted and shook her body furiously to every chord and drum beat with pure punk rock authority. She did this without any regard for the microphone wire, trampling upon it repeatedly, forcing it to eject from the base at least twice. Finally, the microphone died, leaving Pearl with no other option than to use one of her bandmates’ microphones for the remainder of the show.

Dressed in what appeared to be 1970’s era high-waisted jeans, baggy black shirt and jean jacket with The Runaways cherry logo sewn on back, Pearl looked as if she was an extra in the Kristen Stewart/Dakota Fanning film based on the legendary group.

Proving her toughness, Pearl announced to the audience, after being called “Aunt Jemima” by someone in the crowd that her name was “Jemina (Jeh-MEAN-uh), not Aunt Jemima, or even Jeh-MINE-uh.” Endearing the audience to her aggressive stage persona, Pearl sang in guitarist John Eatherly’s face; pulled on his curly brown hair and checkered shirt and gingerly touched his face during the song “Looking for Trouble.” It was almost kind of sweet.

Just when the audience became accustomed to Pearl’s assault, the night came to an abrupt end. It was 12:30 a.m. and the band was finished. The ending was perfect if you consider the technical difficulties openers White Mystery endured earlier that night.

Brother/Sister duo White Mystery perform at Beat Kitchen in Chicago, Ill., on Feb. 6, 2010. | Photo Credit: Audrey Leon

Brother/Sister duo White Mystery had played only a few songs before singer Alex White’s amp blew out. White said shyly, “I think I broke my guitar.” While White worked diligently to fix the problem, her brother Francis White performed a drum solo. He eventually left the room to have a smoke, leaving his sister to climb onto the drum stool and show off her skills behind the kit. White told told the crowd that she had played in several countries and had never had this happen to her.

With the problem fixed, White plugged into her fireglo Rickenbacker and proceeded to rock out with dizzying precision. Like Pearl, White is an highly energetic frontwoman, dancing around the stage with her guitar as her partner.

Despite all the difficulties the two bands faced during their respective sets at the Beat Kitchen, each weathered them gracefully and without skipping a beat they accomplished what they came to Beat Kitchen to do, to put on a great rock show.

Check Out Audrey Leon’s complete photo gallery from Jemina Pearl’s Beat Kitchen show at her Flickr page.