Ries
Registered
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2008
- Messages
- 3,397
- Likes
- 4,494
Normally, I dont go see North American or European bands when I am in Argentina.
Partly thats because a lot of the bands that play here are big mainstream acts I am not that interested in, and partly because I figure I should spend my concert time and money seeing bands that are impossible to see in the USA.
But when I heard Bikini Kill was going to play, I had to buy tickets-
First, because I love the band, and the entire Riot Grrl movement, and, Second, because I wanted to see exactly what kind of Porteno would go see a band as specific and obscure as they are.
They played Complejo C, which is a giant airplane hanger of a space on Corrientes near Dorrego.
We arrived early, to check out the crowd, and it was a gigantic line, with a lot of street vendors selling beer, organic vegan empanadas, and punk t shirts and patches.
The last time we saw Bikini Kill was in 1995, at the height of their powers, and it was a pretty powerful show.
I would estimate the audience here, which basically filled the space, was a couple of thousand people, probably 80% women, and 50% twenty five years old or younger.
Meaning half the audience hadnt even been born when Bikini Kill stopped touring and went dormant.
This was not a Taylor Swift audience. Lots of gays, queers, and genderneutral people, and a lot of outfits that were not what they wore on the train in from the conurbano. Tons of animal print, leather,studs, and short skirts, colored hair, shaved heads, and a few wigs.
The opening act was Barbi Recanati, a fiercely political feminist (hint- not a lot of Milei supporters at a show like this) who I appreciated for her fervor and politics and lyrics, but I found the music sort of standard 90s arena rock. It was partially saved by the fact that her bass player is the amazing Marilna Bertoldi, who in my mind should have been the opening act- her 2018 album killed it, and I still play her feminist rocker Oh No?Constantly.
The audience was enthusiastic, but when Bikini Kill went on, they went wild.
All these kids had somehow memorized all the words to these early 90s feminist punk anthems, andI was surrounded by a sea of bouncing chicas.
I dont know Kathleen Hanna, but, as the song goes, “I went to school in Olympia” although a decade or so before she was there. I know a lot of the musicians from that scene, including various people who played with her in various bands, and know she is formidable.
She went on to tame and marry Adrock, Adam Horowitz, from the Beastie Boys, and put out a series of records for the last 30 years as Le Tigre and Julie Ruin. She never felt a need to return to the 90s ferocity of Bikini kill until the combination of Trump and Covid, and so, she got the old band together- 2 from the original early 90s lineup, and a new guitar player, who are all serious pros, session musicians and members of many bands. Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox played on all these songs when they were new, and have only gotten better with age and experience.
You think of punk as being lacking in musicianship, but this was music that disproved that theory.
Riot Grrl in general was basicaly Grunge, except the boys from Seattle couldnt stand how good the girls were, so they excluded them. Hanna was the one who wrote “Kurt smells like teen spirit”on his bedroom wall, and they were playing the same clubs as the big grunge bands in the beginning.
At 54, she is still a dynamo, playing guitar, singing and dancing. Of course, the first thing she did was call the Girls Up Front, as she always had.
When the band kicked into songs like Suck My Left One, the entire audience knew every word. The pogoing was reaching the sky.
She mentioned Calamity Jane-which is a very obscure bit of Argentina/Grunge history- and all the girls around me were excited, and obviously knew the story- how, when Nirvana played Argentina, Kurt had insisted the Riot Grrl band Calamity Jane open for them, and how the Barones in the Argentine crowd had heckled and thrown bottles at the women when they played.
This is a legend among punk feminists, but hardly common rock nacional lore.
Regardless of time or place, it was an amazing rock concert.
More so, because the degree of reverence these 20 something argentine women held Hanna in as a pioneer and visionary, which is something that caught me unawares.
Barbi Recanati, with the same lineup I saw in BA-
Partly thats because a lot of the bands that play here are big mainstream acts I am not that interested in, and partly because I figure I should spend my concert time and money seeing bands that are impossible to see in the USA.
But when I heard Bikini Kill was going to play, I had to buy tickets-
First, because I love the band, and the entire Riot Grrl movement, and, Second, because I wanted to see exactly what kind of Porteno would go see a band as specific and obscure as they are.
They played Complejo C, which is a giant airplane hanger of a space on Corrientes near Dorrego.
We arrived early, to check out the crowd, and it was a gigantic line, with a lot of street vendors selling beer, organic vegan empanadas, and punk t shirts and patches.
The last time we saw Bikini Kill was in 1995, at the height of their powers, and it was a pretty powerful show.
I would estimate the audience here, which basically filled the space, was a couple of thousand people, probably 80% women, and 50% twenty five years old or younger.
Meaning half the audience hadnt even been born when Bikini Kill stopped touring and went dormant.
This was not a Taylor Swift audience. Lots of gays, queers, and genderneutral people, and a lot of outfits that were not what they wore on the train in from the conurbano. Tons of animal print, leather,studs, and short skirts, colored hair, shaved heads, and a few wigs.
The opening act was Barbi Recanati, a fiercely political feminist (hint- not a lot of Milei supporters at a show like this) who I appreciated for her fervor and politics and lyrics, but I found the music sort of standard 90s arena rock. It was partially saved by the fact that her bass player is the amazing Marilna Bertoldi, who in my mind should have been the opening act- her 2018 album killed it, and I still play her feminist rocker Oh No?Constantly.
The audience was enthusiastic, but when Bikini Kill went on, they went wild.
All these kids had somehow memorized all the words to these early 90s feminist punk anthems, andI was surrounded by a sea of bouncing chicas.
I dont know Kathleen Hanna, but, as the song goes, “I went to school in Olympia” although a decade or so before she was there. I know a lot of the musicians from that scene, including various people who played with her in various bands, and know she is formidable.
She went on to tame and marry Adrock, Adam Horowitz, from the Beastie Boys, and put out a series of records for the last 30 years as Le Tigre and Julie Ruin. She never felt a need to return to the 90s ferocity of Bikini kill until the combination of Trump and Covid, and so, she got the old band together- 2 from the original early 90s lineup, and a new guitar player, who are all serious pros, session musicians and members of many bands. Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox played on all these songs when they were new, and have only gotten better with age and experience.
You think of punk as being lacking in musicianship, but this was music that disproved that theory.
Riot Grrl in general was basicaly Grunge, except the boys from Seattle couldnt stand how good the girls were, so they excluded them. Hanna was the one who wrote “Kurt smells like teen spirit”on his bedroom wall, and they were playing the same clubs as the big grunge bands in the beginning.
At 54, she is still a dynamo, playing guitar, singing and dancing. Of course, the first thing she did was call the Girls Up Front, as she always had.
When the band kicked into songs like Suck My Left One, the entire audience knew every word. The pogoing was reaching the sky.
She mentioned Calamity Jane-which is a very obscure bit of Argentina/Grunge history- and all the girls around me were excited, and obviously knew the story- how, when Nirvana played Argentina, Kurt had insisted the Riot Grrl band Calamity Jane open for them, and how the Barones in the Argentine crowd had heckled and thrown bottles at the women when they played.
This is a legend among punk feminists, but hardly common rock nacional lore.
Regardless of time or place, it was an amazing rock concert.
More so, because the degree of reverence these 20 something argentine women held Hanna in as a pioneer and visionary, which is something that caught me unawares.
Barbi Recanati, with the same lineup I saw in BA-
