Music: Against Me!'s Tom Gabel Makes Live Debut as Laura Jane Grace in San Diego

Against Me! singer-guitarist Tommy Gabel made her live debut as Laura Jane Grace on Friday, performing with the band under her new name for the first time since coming out as transgender.

Charging through a 40-minute set at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay in San Diego – the first stop in a month-long U.S. tour with British rockers the Cult – the quartet played six new songs, including the rollicking anthem "Transgender Dysphoria Blues," the title track of an album they're working on. Decked out in a loose-fitting black tank top, tight black jeans and black eye shadow, Grace was in high spirits as she delivered her trademark, throat-shredding screams.

"I was worried that some people expected me to come out looking like Little Bo Peep or something," Grace said after the show while hanging out at the merch table with her wife, Heather. (They're doing the tour as a family; their toddler daughter, Evelyn, was sleeping with a nanny in the tour bus.)

Though Grace says she's open to having a dialogue about her transition with fans, she kept stage banter to a minimum and never brought up her coming out or new name in between songs. Since many of the concertgoers were Cult fans who weren't familiar with Against Me!, the show wasn't exactly ideal for a punk-rock heart-to-heart.

For his part, longtime fan Jimmy Gomez, 23, doesn't think Grace needs to explain anything.

"She did it for herself, not for anybody else. This is about her," he said. "She's doing something she really loves now and she's really happy – that's really awesome."

http://m.rollingstone.com/?redirurl=/music/news/against-me-s-tom-gabel-makes-live-debut-as-laura-jane-grace-in-san-diego-20120526