Northeast Ohio has taken a liking to Riot Grrrl bands. The Agora hosted one of the movement’s seminal girl power punk outfits, Bikini Kill, on Thursday night.
If a sold-out crowd wasn’t enough, the line for the merch table wound through the venue, starting at the merch table towards the front of the venue, snaking through the lobby, and winding itself halfway up the stairs to the mezzanine level.
Formed in late 1990, the Olympia, Washington-area quartet rose to fame with biting lyrics, a punk attitude, and boatloads of charisma. Breaking up in 1997, the band got back together and have toured extensively since 2017.
Fronted by vocalist Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kill wowed the audience at the packed theater. Founding members Tobi Vail sat behind the kit and Kathi Wilcox took up bass duties. Sara Landeau joined the outfit in 2022 on guitar.
Ripping through a twenty-five-tune set, the band played for a brisk ninety minutes. The songs were divided fairly evenly from their most popular albums, with their seminal release Pussy Whipped representing a few of their most popular tunes. Both “Sugar” and “Hamster Baby” were late-set offerings. Other notable tunes peppered throughout the night were “Reject All American” from the eponymous album; “Double Dare Ya,” “This Is Not a Test,” and “Suck My Left One” from 1991’s Revolution Girl Style Now; “Rebel Girl” ended the night, bringing a scorching evening of early ’90s proto-feminist punk to its end.
Hanna sounded great; while it’s easy to discount legacy acts as cashing in on their youth, Hanna and the band still had plenty of fire in their playing and vocals.
Post-punk Chicago Ganser started things out with a half hour of regressive punk, reminiscent of early dream popsters Mazzy Star. Bass player and vocalist Alicia Gaines kept her quartet going with a decent bass line while founding member Brian Cundiff kept the rhythm going behind his kit.
