Bikini Kill Bring the Heat to Toronto
Toronto, Canada – In the early 1990s, a punk rock movement was taking hold in the underground music world in Washington, and the Pacific Northwest. This new subculture was called Riot Grrrl, and it combined punk rock and politics with feminism. With lyrics addressing feminist subject matter like sexuality, rape, and female empowerment, the movement quickly spread globally.
One of the pioneering bands of the Riot Grrrl movement was a group out of Olympia, Washington called Bikini Kill. Bikini Kill was formed in 1990 by original members Kathleen Hanna on vocals, Kathi Wilcox on bass guitar, Tobi Vail behind the kit, and lone male member Billy Karen on guitar. With their feminist views, the band encouraged female participation at all their shows, often treating the women in the crowd to a more intimate experience. Of course, this is not to say the band didn’t have any male followers. In fact, quite the opposite, as the band reached a large male audience. Despite this, however, Bikini Kill experienced hate and abuse from other male concertgoers who didn’t quite have the same mindset as the band. In fact, several concertgoers would attend shows, only to heckle, berate and even physically assault the musicians.
In 1993 Bikini Kill released their first full-length album Pussy Whipped and the Riot Grrrl movement was gaining media attention. Unfortunately, this didn’t necessarily mean that the band was gaining popularity. Lead singer Kathleen Hanna actually shares that the band was not very well received at all and describes it as a very difficult time. Perhaps these challenges played a huge part in the band’s disbandment in 1997.
In 2019, 20-plus years after the band’s break-up, Bikini Kill announced a handful of shows in the US and the UK. In 2020 the band announced a larger North American tour consisting of 13 dates, but then the world went to shit. Because of our generation’s pandemic, this tour got delayed to 2022, and things have kept going for the band since then. On March 30, 2023, another North American Tour had taken shape in Nashville, TN, that saw the band play through 8 American shows, before heading north of the border to Canada. And here it is that brings Shutter 16 to the band’s Toronto show on April 13 at The Danforth Music Hall.
April 13, 2023, was the hottest April 13 in 50 years for the city of Toronto, Canada. Something is in the air here. Oh, wait…. Bikini Kill is here for the first of 2 sold-out shows. Now it all makes sense!!!
The Show
As is typical, I arrive early to the venue to take my place in line, and just chill and hang out. There’s a buzz here for sure. The demographic is broad. Young mothers with their young daughters, old dudes (besides myself), 20-year-old guys and gals, and the LGBTQ are all represented here. A couple of 20-something girls behind me are chatting about how cool everybody looks.
Once we’re all inside and ready to go, the heat is stifling. Unusual weather comes with a bit of unpreparedness. The AC seems to be bringing some cooler air, but it has not yet cooled down the facility. And the reality is that the heat is about to rise.
CB Radio Gorgeous
Right on cue at 8:00, the support act, a band called CB Radio Gorgeous, hits the stage. They are a 4-piece punk outfit from Chicago, Illinois. Once the music gets going, bassist Jill Lloyd Flanagan is full of energy, hopping and bouncing around as the band’s sharp, punk sound fills the concert hall. A young fan behind me yells out “You’re so beautiful” to the bassist. It’s a sign of the inclusion that the crowd will show through the rest of the night. Lead singer Anna Kinderman has the same energy. Using the whole stage as her playground, the singer is fully engaged. I get a reminder of The B52s, mainly from Kinderman’s vocals, as I try to keep pace, photographing the dimly lit action in front of me.
Kinderman shares that this is the band’s very first time in Canada. The singer continues to frolic, crawling around the stage, and blasting out her vocals. She also shares that a new album will hit the streets by the end of the year, much to the delight of the fans. CB Radio Gorgeous plays a blistering, short 30-minute set, but they keep the energy through their whole show, priming the crowd for the main event.
Bikini Kill
The Bikini Kill set starts with lead vocalist Kathleen Hanna having a chat with the crowd about how great it is to be playing with her band members again, and how lucky they are to be able to do what they do. The crowd immediately shows their love with a raucous roar, and the band starts in with their breakneck Riot Grrrl punk rock. They immediately plow through their first 3 songs. As with the opening act, I’m frantically trying to keep up with the pace on stage, and as fast as that, as a photographer, we must leave the photo pit at the front of the stage.
Hanna again interacts with the crowd by stating that she’s “a 54-year-old punk. Today’s generation is so much smarter than we were”, and again, with its multi-generational crowd, the fans give out an ear-splitting cheer.
For the band’s 5th track of the evening, drummer Tobi Vail came out from behind the kit and approached the front of the stage. Her pink hair and sunglasses are such a cool look for the punk drummer. Having never seen a Bikini Kill show (Vail explains here that it’s only the band’s 3rd trip north of the border), I was surprised when bassist Kathi Lynn Wilcox moved to the drummer’s throne, and Kathleen Hanna strapped on the bass guitar. And so it was, that Vail was to sing the next 2 tracks, the 30-second 6th with a very cool red glow cast upon the stage. The band had been tight, fast, and loud to this point, and this “change” brought the same cohesion we’d seen thus far. These women of punk rock are clearly more than their perceived (by many) feminist rants. They are actual musicians and multi-talented to boot. In fact, there are a few of these lineup changes throughout the set, even with guitarist Erica Dawn Lyle having a go at the drums for one song. It all pays off great for the band, and something I personally haven’t witnessed live to this level ever before.
Kathleen Hanna shares a lot of stories and thoughts on the band’s persona in between tracks. She gives a shout-out to Canadian artist and musician G.B. Jones, and she dedicates songs to all those people who have been called “shit” and urges people to take care of themselves first. Hanna even shares the pain and struggles when the band first started out. She tells how they were called sluts and had beer spit in their faces, and how male critics said they didn’t have any real songs, but joyously shouts “BUT WE MADE IT!”
Like the CB Radio Gorgeous set, Bikini Kill’s set was shorter than shows I’m used to covering, but they bulldozed their way through 25 tracks in just under 75 minutes. The crowd was hoppin’ and boppin’ the whole time, and the venue was electric as all punk shows should be. So much so, that at the end of the evening, as I made my way outdoors, people were gathered around, and the street was abuzz with excited fans. One lady happily announced, “I’ve waited 20 years for his night.” The band definitely turned up the heat at Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall.
Despite the long break from 1997 to 2019, the band is clearly still relevant, as witnessed by the sell-out crowd on this night. Bikini Kill is not going to be everybody’s taste, but one thing that I always maintain is that if it’s not your cup of tea, just don’t drink it!
Click Here for the Full Gallery of the Evening!
If you happened to capture any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see.
