Riot grrl pioneers Bikini Kill top the bill at the Warfield
Reunited '90s riot grrl band Bikini Kill returns to the Bay Area for only the second time since they originally split up over two decades ago, headlining the Warfield for two nights starting Sunday.
Led by charismatic singer Kathleen Hanna, the band came together in Olympia, Washington in 1990 when she teamed with fellow Evergreen State College students Tobi Vail (bass) and Kathi Wilcox (drums) and guitarist Billy Karren. Inspired by her mother's activism at a young age, Hanna had already been channeling her feminist politics into visual art and spoken-word performances before following the advice of writer and counterculture icon Kathy Acker to start a band.
The band's eponymous debut EP in 1991 produced by Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi) was a visceral blast of politically-charged punk. Songs like "Double Dare Ya" and "Suck My Left One" carried the same "girls to the front" message of Bikini Kill's blistering live performances -- Hanna would frequently leave the stage to confront male audience members who were harassing female attendees -- and the feminist zine the band produced that shared its name.
The band would spend time in Washington, D.C. that summer as Hannah collaborated on a pair of musical projects (Suture with pioneering DC punk Sharon Cheslow and Wondertwins with Tim Green of Nation of Ulysses) as well as the Riot grrl zine that had been started by members of Bratmobile and would essentially become the manifesto for the burgeoning underground feminist punk movement.
Bikini Kill would release the seminal riot grrl anthem "Rebel Girl" on their second effort, a split EP with the British band Huggy Bear the following year as they built on their growing fan base, bringing their explosive stage show to England for a tour with Huggy Bear that would be filmed for the documentary, It Changed My Life: Bikini Kill in the UK. The group would return to the States and begin working with another feminist punk icon, Joan Jett, who would produce and play on a second recording of "Rebel Girl" in addition to Hannah co-writing new songs for Jett's Pure and Simple album.
The band would continue to receive critical accolades for their subsequent albums -- Pussy Whipped in 1993 and Reject All American three years later -- but their desire to stick with punk's DIY approach and the pressure from antagonism and abuse the band sometimes faced because of their bold political stance led Bikini Kill to split in 1997. Its members would focus on new band projects, with Hannah launching her electronic-based act Le Tigre and her sampler-and-drum-machine project the Julie Ruin. She shared the stage with Vail and Wilcox in 2017 to perform a single song for a book release event, which paved the way for a reunion in 2019 that has since seen the group headline arenas in the UK and Riot Fest in Chicago with guitarist Erica Dawn Lyle filling in for the absent Karren. More recently, the Julie Ruin member Sara Landeau has been filling in on guitar and occasional bass.
The group played their first Bay Area show in over 20 years when they headlined the closing night of the Mosswood Meltdown in 2022. The band comes back to headline these two shows at the Warfield in San Francisco. The Sunday night show will feature an opening set by Portland, OR-based trio the Ghost Ease. Started as a bedroom studio solo project of guitarist, singer and songwriter Jem Marie in 2010, it expanded to a duo two years later when Nsayi Matingou joined on drums in time for the recording of their shoegaze-influenced post-punk debut in 2013. The group has cycled through multiple bass players since then, releasing several albums, including the acclaimed Psyche Lifeline in 2022.
On Monday, Bikini Kill will be joined by veteran San Francisco punk act, Frightwig. The pioneering all-female group was formed by bassist/singer Deanna Ashley and guitarist Mia d'Bruzzi in 1982 (drummer Cecilia Kuhn joined later). Taking a decidedly feminist stance in response to the hostile reception they often received when they took the stage, the band would have male audience members perform onstage striptease for their song "A Man's Gotta Do, What A Man's Gotta Do."
Having become an established band at San Francisco underground punk clubs, Frightwig recorded their debut album Cat Farm Faboo with guitarist and frequent Residents collaborator Phillip "Snakefinger" Lithman in 1984 in the space of just 72 hours. The abrasive, noisy songs and salicious lyrics heard on that album and the 1986 follow-up Faster, Frightwig, Kill! Kill! would prove to be an enormous influence on the riot grrl movement and groups like Bikini Kill, L7 and Hole the following decade. While Frightwig split up in 1994, they would reunite nearly two decades later. Last fall, the band released its first new album in 37 years -- We Need To Talk... on Label 51 Recordings.
Bikini Kill
Sunday-Monday, Aug. 18-19, 8 p.m. $19.50-79.50
The Warfield