Sure, there were rumors. But for most fans, the announcement last August that San Antonio’s beloved alt-punk trio Girl in a Coma would reunite for a brief series of “closure” shows came as a total shock.
The group had been in limbo for years, formally disbanded. Even though interviewers regularly pressed the members on whether they’d ever reunite, they’d since moved on to other projects.
Singer-songwriter Nina Diaz had a solo career that includes prolific self-releases and singing on the opening track of a Spanish-language reimagining of Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Model titled Spanish Model. Meanwhile, bassist Jenn Alva and drummer Phanie Diaz — Nina’s big sister — tour regularly as the core of Latina punk group Fea, a hard-hitting outfit that’s earned accolades from Rolling Stone and Iggy Pop.
Just the same, the reunion — however short-lived — is real, and the shows are nearly here. GIAC will play San Antonio’s Paper Tiger on Friday, Dec. 8, and Sunday, Dec. 10. Both San Antonio shows are sold out. The Offbeats will open the Friday performance, while Ready Revolution kicks things off Sunday.
Also on the books: a Thursday, Dec. 7, gig at Houston’s Continental Club and Saturday, Dec. 9, at the Mohawk in Austin.
Just the same, many fans are left wondering the same thing: despite the premise, could this be the inevitable prelude to an album, a full tour and a return to full working status? Like so many things surrounding Girl in a Coma, it’s complicated.
However, during a series of October interviews with the band’s members, individually and as a group, all three expressed an excitement about the upcoming shows. During a recent practice, the band ran through powerful versions of classics including “Clumsy Sky,” “Smart,” “Adjust” and “Ven Cerca.”
If the power of that practice is any indication: it’s unlikely that fans hitting the December shows will walk away disappointed. The Girls still have it. Once the music started, it was like the magic never went away.
Nina still commanded attention with her passionate, wavering vocals. Jenn still bobbed her head in classic punk style, charging ahead with her powerful bass lines. Phanie held down a strong foundation, despite Nina jokingly admonishing her for playing too fast.
“This isn’t Fea!” her sister reminded her.
But before we can talk about what the future might hold beyond the four upcoming shows, it’s vital to look back.
Sisters in arms
“I remember when my mom brought Nina home, my brother was really upset,” said Phanie, 43. “I remember her being placed in the crib and my brother was like, ‘Great.‘ Really mad about it.”
Unlike her brother, Phanie wasn’t jealous. Instead, she was excited to have a sister.
Jenn, 43, remembered that she and Phanie met in 8th grade in an art class at Longfellow Middle School. They had the same shoes in different colors. Jenn suggested a swap. Phanie declined.
Shoes aside, they began to talk about music that summer, and Jenn suggested they start a band. Jenn lied about being able to play bass, but luckily Phanie knew enough to show her the basics.
“We’ve been best friends ever since,” Jenn said.
The pair spent years playing in “dirty punk bands” before setting their sights higher as they entered their 20s, according to Phanie. After those dues-paying years, they envisioned the band that became GIAC.
The only problem was the seasoned rhythm section needed someone up front.
Even though many musicians wouldn’t have considered adding a member eight years their junior, Phanie recognized the talent blooming in her sister, then nearly 14. Nina, now 35, was developing chops on the guitar and starting to write her own songs. Not to mention, she had a unique vocal style that recalled influences spanning Bjork to Patsy Cline to Morrissey, the singer of The Smiths.
Adding to that diversity of influences, the three young women hadn’t just grown up on punk, alt- and classic rock. Given their hometown and cultural roots, Tejano was also part of the mix. The blend helped form a distinctive sound.
Still, the members of Girl in a Coma always emphasized they’re none of these things individually. At the end of the day, they’re simply a rock ‘n’ roll band.
By 2001, the trio was serious about playing live, and the band took its name in homage to The Smiths song “Girlfriend in a Coma.” All three members were fans, but the moniker would prove fortuitous. Little did they know, Morrissey would pop up in their story again.
The trio was thrown into the deep end with its first show, a bill at now-shuttered goth and punk club Sin 13.
“I was working at a thrift store and a girl from a band called Burning White Lines was a regular thrifter there,” Phanie said. “I told her I was starting a band.”
After another group dropped off the Sin 13 bill, the customer asked Phanie if Girl in a Coma could fill in. The other two members of GIAC were less than enthusiastic, since the fledgling group only had three songs. Despite the reservations, they soldiered ahead.
By the time of the show, Nina got so nervous she couldn’t make eye contact with anyone.
And Phanie? “I didn’t know how to set up the drum kit correctly.”
Team GIAC
Despite its rough debut, Girl in a Coma persevered. The band thrived due to teamwork. Each of the three strong women brought something to the mix.
Phanie excelled at managing social media, once landing GIAC opening slots for Canadian alt-pop duo Tegan and Sara by reaching out with an unsolicited message. Meanwhile, Jenn played the role of organizer and motivator, and Nina wrote the songs.
It didn’t hurt that Phanie’s and Nina’s mom became a solid supporter once she realized how committed her daughters were to the band. She even got the trio a loan so they could update their equipment.
Nor did it hurt that Nina took a deeply analytical approach to improving her songwriting. She learned by ear, picking apart others’ songs and learning what made them work.
“I analyzed cover songs, and it made me the kind of writer I am,” she said. “This song is three chords? I thought it was a zillion. It seems so complicated.”
She also brought a unique vocal style, heavy on a wavering tremolo that’s been one of her trademarks.
At one point, that wavering pitch became so prominent that the band’s other members asked her to dial it down. Her early Morrissey influence was so pronounced some early listeners thought she was British.
Jenn’s hard-charging bass provided a perfect foil and created a musical tension at the core of Girl in a Coma’s best work.
“[She] goes in blindly and doesn’t follow rules,” Phanie said of Jenn. “She took off with the little bass I showed her. There’s no rules to the way she writes stuff. She’s lead-driven. There’s this melody battle between her and Nina that I really appreciate.”
Beyond adding sonic balance, Phanie emerged as the band’s undisputed leader. Even today, all parties agree.
“I am [the leader] with Fea, and I guess so with Girl in a Coma, looking back,” Phanie said. “The girls did rely on me.”
Phanie showed her drive and dedication by booking early road dates with a dial-up internet connection from the library near the Diaz family home.
“I booked our first tour, and it was two months,” Phanie recalled. “I don’t know what the fuck we were thinking doing that. We left with $500 and went coast to coast.”
The members of Girl in a Coma ran out of money in San Francisco and went to bars with a Walkman, asking people to listen to the band’s demo. They asked anyone who liked what they heard to donate $5. Finally, the band collected $170 — enough to get home.
Eventually, those tribulations gave way to successes. During a subsequent tour, the band ended up meeting Morrissey at LA’s famed Viper Room — a connection that turned into a tour opening slot for the alt-rock icon.
“It was our first time playing [the Viper Room],” Nina said. “I love River Phoenix, and I’m morbid as well. I took a photo of where he passed. Morrissey was in the back corner, and it’s so dramatic because there’s a curtain, but you know he’s there.”
Faith Radle, who managed Girl in a Coma for the majority of its run, said the tour opening for Morrissey was a watershed moment. Although the singer’s cultish fans had a tendency to treat opening bands with indifference or outright disdain, the three young women from San Antonio won over the crowds.
“There was a moment where they played a song and the crowd turned and embraced them,” Radle said. “They just won over this sold-out crowd in New York City, and no one [was] there to see them.”
The Diaz House
Girl in a Coma toured relentlessly. It also dropped three LPs of original material: Both Before I’m Gone (2007), Trio B.C. (2009) and Exits & All The Rest (2011) along with the covers album Adventures in Coverland (2010).
By alt-rock standards, it was a successful run, but it’s not like the members got rich.
Nina currently lives with her parents in the same home where she grew up — and where Phanie has lived intermittently. It’s the same place that houses her studio, Beat Girl Productions, where she records her solo material and is building up to record other acts.
“My parents have always been very accommodating,” Nina said. “GIAC was practicing here, Fea was here, my solo stuff. This is a very musical house.”
Nina’s and Phanie’s mom grew up southeast of San Antonio in the small town of Runge. She moved to the Alamo City at 19 after becoming pregnant with Phanie.
“She’s always been mindful to encourage what we’ve been interested in, even in our relationships,” Nina said. “Not to control anything as long as we’re safe — even though we’d lie about being safe on some things, you know? She’d say, ‘I don’t have a lot of money, but I have this room.'”
But it’s not just blood family at the heart of GIAC’s success. Fans connected with the group’s approachability and treated the members like family.
“It’s like we’re your cousins or your sisters,” Nina said. “Or the girl you might have a crush on down the street, but she’s cool and actually talks to you.”
Despite plenty of fans cheering them on, the band’s youth presented challenges. Jenn and Phanie were barely out of their teens when success started to snowball. Meanwhile, the even younger Nina was even more inexperienced. Without a lot of life experiences to guide her, she made poor choices.
“Later on, as I started to have moments of sobriety, I realized that being in that environment early makes you say, ‘I can do whatever I want,'” she said. “But then my moments of sobriety and spirituality began to clash with whatever roads Jenn and Phanie were on personally. That’s when things would start to get chaotic.”
Perhaps it was inevitable that tensions would rise as three tough, strong-willed women navigated touring life and a dog-eat-dog music business.
Even so, the road went on and on, and pioneering woman rocker Joan Jett signed the trio to her Blackheart Records label.
Radle recalled watching Jett light up as she watched GIAC perform. That gig ended up prompting her to bring the group into her fold.
“I was standing next to [Jett], watching her watching them — and seeing her reaction was pretty special,” Radle said. “She’s a genuine person, and her reaction to them was very genuine.”
Tours and gigs with Jett followed. So did road dates with the Pogues, Social Distortion, Smashing Pumpkins, Frank Black, Minus the Bear and Cursive. Girl in a Coma even landed a song in the Robert Rodriguez film Machete.
The hard work paid off, and the band accumulated fans around the globe. The base crossed genders, ages, ethnicities and sexual identities.
In particular, Phanie treasures memories of the band’s performance at Polish Woodstock, which it headlined with multi-platinum rap-rockers Papa Roach.
“We played in front of half a million people,” Phanie said. “Jenn got sick real quick, she was so nervous. Our manager told us how many people were out there, and I was like, ‘Holy shit!’ Once you’re up there, you look out, and people are just ants.”
Deep wounds
After nearly two decades flogging the road, more pressures accompanied the successes. GIAC’s members were also growing up, growing older and spreading their wings.
By 2018, the band was winding down. The breakup left wounds — in some cases deepened by the group’s family connections.
Girl in a Coma played that year’s Taco Fest, a San Antonio food and music festival. At the time, only Nina knew it was the last gig.
“You could see a lot on their faces,” Radle remembered of the performance. “I was very aware that things were going on, but none of us were aware it was the last show.”
Phanie didn’t want to see the breakup happen, but she now recognizes that it was the right move.
“I always thought we would be a strong family but things change,” she said. “Time changes you.”
“All the cliches came into play,” Jenn said of the end. “Phanie and I were OK with drinking here and there. Nina was young, so that was intense. I felt like I was more naïve to her drug use. Maybe I hadn’t been around a lot of people that used drugs or whatever.”
For Nina, the first step to sobriety was being called on the severity of her problem.
“It was always, ‘Don’t tell Jenn and Phanie’ — and that was my teens, until I got sober,” she said. “Finally, I had a moment where a friend said, ‘Hey, Nina, I can’t be your friend anymore if you’re going to do this.'”
Nina recalls having a profound conversation with her brother about her need to get clean. Eventually, she joined AA.
“What drugs I had left, I put in this heart-shaped box, taped it up, and threw it away,” she added.
Although Jenn and Phanie never formally intervened, the three later talked about Nina’s sobriety.
“I remember Jenn crying and saying, ‘We thought you were gonna die,'” Nina said. “And I’m thinking, ‘Why didn’t you say something?’ They weren’t the wake-up call.”
Nina decided to move on and pursue her own musical path, relocating to LA, taking a day job and pursuing a solo career. Jenn and Phanie put their heads down, tough as ever. They shifted their focus to Fea.
“If you look at it from the outside, maybe Nina would be more successful without us,” Jenn said. “I think that’s what drove her, maybe. The not getting along, the wanting to do her own stuff and not being told anything by us.”
Despite the pain that came with the breakup, all three members said they also gained an eventual understanding of why the split occurred — and why it may have been beneficial.
“Nina had been getting help, therapists, this and that. Phanie and I didn’t, and we had to deal,” Jenn said. “Sometimes we were very upset, and sometimes we were fine with it.”
Breaking the silence
Radio silence held steady between two camps until COVID-19 hit U.S. shores in 2020.
The three reunited to play a set for Phanie’s and Nina’s mom’s 60th birthday — a gig she requested. Playing a one-off gig at the house made sense. Jenn and Phanie were both living there to ride out the pandemic.
Eventually, Nina moved back to the GIAC house as well, meaning the band — the family — was all under the same roof. The tension remained, and at one point, Nina threatened to move out.
But then came a gradual thaw. Nina and Phanie began talking after the death of a close mutual friend — a discussion that led Nina to realize life’s fleeting nature.
“I love Jenn too, but Phanie is my sister,” she said.
The healing took time, Phanie added.
“We grew separately, even Jenn and I as best friends,” she explained. “Becoming individuals instead of relying on each other. We realized it’s OK to do these [closure shows] and not be mad anymore. We’re all going to be sad, and I’m sure I’ll cry playing drums.”
‘Someone has to be the bad guy’
With long-simmering tensions repaired, is Girl in a Coma looking to make a permanent return? That decision ultimately comes down to Nina, according to Phanie.
“I don’t know how Nina will feel when it’s done, or whether in two years from now she’ll be like ‘Do you want to have another show?'” she said. “From day one, I’ve said yes to everything. It’s one of those things where it will be OK if it doesn’t happen again. I have to keep it in my head that it’s my sister first.”
Nina said she knows Jenn and Phanie would like GIAC to create new music and operate as a working band. She also understands she’s the one standing in the way.
“I remember telling Phanie — after I ended the band and we got into it — ‘This is a chance for you to explore,’ Nina said. “Now look at Phanie. She owns Bang Bang and Bar America. She’s become this entrepreneur. And Jenn has her family now. I don’t think that would have happened if GIAC was still GIAC.”
Nina added: “Girl in a Coma ran its course. We’ve done what we can. But there’s still so much more as an artist and as a person that I have to learn and do. … Let’s focus on what we can do, which is jam and laugh. And I’m going to have my sister back. Not a parental figure.”
Despite the short-lived nature of the reunion, Phanie is looking forward to seeing familiar faces. She’s also eager to see old fans bring the next generation of GIAC fans to the show: their kids.
So, even though the gigs are meant to provide closure, they’ll be a new beginning in some ways. With a family there are always more chapters to be written.
“Doing these closure shows, this is how I wish it had ended,” Nina said. “It was a classic breakup. Someone has to be the bad guy, you know?”
Sold out, 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8 and Sunday, Dec. 10, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com.
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This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 12, 2023.