Bikini Kill at the Roundhouse

Bikini Kill

Snoozers

Roundhouse, 12 June 2024

I often ask myself, why didn't I go to see Bikini Kill back in the 90s? I loved bands like Babes In Toyland, Hole and L7 and saw them all, but for some crazy reason I didn't grab onto the whole Riot Grrrl thing and wholeheartedly enjoy it in its prime despite being proudly both a feminist and a punk fan. I think it may be because, while I knew about it and loved the idea, I simply had never heard any of the bands central to the movement and back then without the internet and Spotify, it was so hard to hear underground music and if you were lucky enough to find it in a record store, as a teen I had limited funds and had to be careful with the records I bought. But I know now, by not taking a chance on Bikini Kill, I well and truly missed out.

Of course, Courtney Love famously had a spat with Bikini Kill (mostly one sided it seems, culminating with the famous punching incident, where she hit Kathleen Hanna, that landed her in court) and that may well have put me off investigating them further as I was such a huge devotee of Love. I was also completely influenced by the UK press, who didn't really feature them that much, so much so that when Britpop came knocking and began to dominate the music papers, I felt completely at a loss finding music that appealed to me and bands like Sleater-Kinney, Cat Power and Helium, who I should have spent the late 90s worshiping and being inspired by, I only discovered later on. 

Thankfully I found Le Tigre in time (partly due to reading Cedric Bixler of At The Drive-In recommending them) and finally got to see Kathleen Hanna perform live with the band in 2002 at a very different kind of show than Bikini Kill. But reading Hanna's recently published memoir, Rebel Girl, made me very nostalgic for that magical time for alternative music in the 1990s and also made me so sad that I wasn't part of, or at least, a witness to that whole important and influential scene.

Luckily for me I got another chance to finally see the reunited Bikini Kill tonight and, damn, was it a lot of fun! 

I got there early to try and get a good spot at the front and there was already a huge queue, mainly filled with a variety of punk rock girls of all ages (interestingly, the Le Tigre audience from years ago was less punk rock and more like a cool Pride parade of fans). It's crazy and cool just how much their fanbase has grown in the years during their split and reformation, as I can't imagine they could have played a venue the size of the Roundhouse back in the 90s, plus so many people here tonight weren't even born back when they last existed, which just shows the power of the music, and the message it conveyed, that it endures and is still capturing the hearts of young punk rockers and feminists.

First though came the band Snoozers, made up of ex-members of Huggy Bear, The Casual Dots and the vocal and big-haired goodness of singer/guitarist Nadia Buyse. Snoozers are very much a DIY type of band, with basic drums (in fact drummer Steve Dore is only playing a two-piece drum kit: Lars Ulrich would be horrified) and bass (Jon Slade) with Buyse providing simple guitar licks on short, two or three minute songs. But the whole thing is beautifully tied together by Buyse's powerful and unique voice and her huge, bubbly and positive personality. Halfway through she suddenly pulled off her black turtleneck and performed the rest of the show in a filmsy red bralette, with her huge breasts often becoming dangerously close to coming loose as she jumped around and danced during the songs, which, as a cool plus size lady, seemed way more of a powerful statement than if your regular skinny minnie did it. 

They ended their set with a song about the police (as in cops, not the band) called Nobody Likes You, which of course united the audience. Snoozers were playful and fun and I would love to see them in a smaller venue because I think there they would really be in their element. They were certainly a great fit to open for Bikini Kill though and I think they went down well with the audience.

Kathleen Hanna's book only came out weeks ago and it was still fresh in my mind, so it was pretty exciting to see her and her bandmates, Kathi Wilcox and Tobi Vail, there in the flesh on stage and still looking impossibly cool in their mid 50s. Back in the 90s as a teenager I would have given anything to look like the girls in Bikini Kill and here they are still looking cooler than anyone, including me. Hanna herself was all smiles and full of chat, immediately running up to the mike to talk to the audience about Snoozers and other things before the band had even played a note.

Launching into New Radio, they easily kicked into gear and sounded as fresh and raw as they did back in their hey day. All their songs are pretty short but that made for an exciting set where they whizzed through the material giving us a great selection of songs from all their releases, such as Jigsaw Youth, Double Dare Ya, Carnival, Reject All American, Sugar and Tony Randall, to name but a few (they definitely played over 20 songs in all).

A few songs in and Vail came out from behind the drums, wearing white-rimmed sunglasses (very Riot Grrrl and very cool) and what looked like a 50s swim-dress, and told us a rambling story in her little girl voice about being in London years ago and seeing a picture of Ari Up from The Slits, the London punk band who were a huge influence on Bikini Kill. While she was telling this, Hanna took over on bass and Wilcox jumped behind the drums and with this rejigged line-up, played I Hate Danger and In Accordance To Natural Law, two early singles by the band. Apparently they used to do this too back in the day and the sound was flawless and Vail was also a commanding presence singing lead vocals.

It was at this point, I think, when Hanna took the microphone again, that she had to call out some guy causing trouble at the front (she said she wasn't even going to look in his direction but nicely asked him to stop). I have no idea what he was doing but she suggested that he move back. "I have no idea if it's your fault or not, but you should move back before this becomes a situation." The guy obviously didn't like this so Hanna said he needed to move or she would get someone to remove him. "It might not be fair," she said, "but then it's not fair that I make half of what men do." It wasn't quite the "girls in front" mantra of old (she says she doesn't like to do that anymore), but it was interesting that all these years on, a concert that was largely a female audience, still had male troublemakers that needed to be sorted. Before the band even came on, near me two security guards had to remove a heavy metal-looking dude (I don't know what he did, but someone had complained about him) and during the show, 90 per cent of the crowd surfers or people being dragged out over the barriers were guys who looked like they were having a little too much of a good time. 

For the song Star Bellied Boy, Hanna told us it was about a male friend who read even more feminist books than she did but was a wolf in sheep's clothing (in fact, I know having read her excellent book, this was the so-called friend who ended up raping her), so it seemed particularly powerful and angry when she sang it. 

After this, Vail took the mike again but this time Kathi Wilcox strapped on a Rickenbacker guitar (proving to be just as adept on guitar I must say), guitarist Sara Landeau (the only member not in the original line-up but who fit right in) took to the drums and Hanna resuming bass duties. This time Vail told some story about having an argument with someone in London at Cafe Oto about egg punk and it apparently being a real thing (I am clueless, I've never heard of it, although Hanna seemed she didn't know either and had only been told about it by Vail). This configuration played two more Vail-led songs, Hamster Baby and Tell Me So. 

Even though Vail is super cool and fun to watch, Hanna is such a compelling and riveting front woman. She isn’t the angry young woman she once was it’s true but her voice is as powerful and commanding as ever and it’s exciting to watch her bounce around the stage, sometimes dancing doing cute moves, other times skipping and sometimes clowning around and making goofy faces. That said, every member of Bikini Kill is a force to be reckoned with: Kathi Wilcox is a solid and striking presence, tall and icy cool and incredibly looking exactly like she did 30 years ago wearing by a short black dress and bright pink leggings, and Tobi Vail is a great singer but behind the drum kit, you can understand why, despite their differences, Hanna didn’t want to work with another drummer after Bikini Kill split, she’s the underrated backbeat to the band. But it's Hanna who is undeniably the visual and vocal focal point and really what makes them so special. She is so energetic and keeps things fun to watch while her strong voice is unlike any other: one note from her and it’s instantly recognisable as Hanna.

After Vail returned to her drums and Landeau strapped back on her guitar, Hanna complimented her on her all white outfit, including a cool white guitar, saying she looked like an ice cream man. This led to her asking the audience if we also called the guys selling ice cream in vans, "the ice cream man", to which we were treated with Hanna loudly parroting "Mr Whippy?!!" If only they were still releasing new music, we may well have got a new Bikini Kill song called Mr Whippy! She then told a story about a broken ice cream van that parked opposite her apartment back in the early Bikini Kill days that kept repeating the first few notes of its jingle, Scott Joplin's The Entertainer, and mused how awful it would be if the band came on stage and did the same for an hour!

At the end someone called for the song Suck My Left One and Hanna said, "You know what, we're going to play what you want, let's not play what's on the setlist, I'm changing it," and they launched into the song. I don't know how much of this was truly spontaneous as it seems they have been ending most of their shows with this song, but it still felt like a nice moment where they were listening to the audience and it went down really well with everyone and sounded fantastic.

A lot of shows I've been to lately have been getting rid of the pretense of the encore, but I pretty much knew there would be one tonight as they hadn't played probably their most famous song yet. When the band inevitably returned onto the stage, Vail came to the microphone to tell us about Hanna's book and to dedicate the next song, which shares its name, to her "so she will be singing this song to herself!" Hanna laughed but decided to dedicate it to Viv Albertine of The Slits, who herself wrote two incredible books. The show, of course, then ended with a spirited version of Rebel Girl and the crowd went wild.

Near the end Hanna thanks everyone for coming and says how nice it is to see so many young people at the show and how positive it is. She also thanks them for continuing to invent new words that she uses everyday. But I also appreciate that she thanks those of us her age (I’m younger than Hanna but definitely feel closer to her age than the kids here). She says how amazing it is we are all still here and kicking ass. I feel the same way!

Seeing Bikini Kill for me has been a long time coming but thankfully they didn't disappoint at all. How amazing it is to have them back and bigger than ever.