Attention all rebel girls: Bikini Kill will tour Australia for the first time since 1997. One of the most influential acts of their generation, the American rock band will be bringing their provocative punk to Melbourne’s The Forum on March 7 and 8, 2023.
Based in Olympia, Washington and Washington DC, Bikini Kill is the famous feminist punk rock group that formed in 1990 and can be credited for instigating the Riot Grrrl movement in the early ‘90s with their venomous lyrics, zines and electric live shows.
Led by singer and songwriter Kathleen Hanna – who famously wrote the phrase "smells like teen spirit" on Kurt Cobain’s apartment wall, inspiring Nirvana’s biggest hit – Bikini Kill also featured Tobi Vail, who played the drums, Billy Karren (aka Billy Boredom) who played the guitar and Kathi Wilcox on bass.
Over the decades, Bikini Kill has tackled rape culture, female solidarity and the pursuit of pleasure with their confrontational vocals, famous for headbanging hits such as 'Rebel Girl', 'Double Dare Ya', 'Carnival' and 'New Radio'. The band’s raison d’être was that if all girls started a band, the world could change, thereby encouraging all women and girls to pick up a mic and sing – or shout – as means of cultural resistance.
After releasing three albums, Bikini Kill played their last show in Tokyo in 1997, where the group splintered due to “interpersonal conflicts”. Hanna went on to form the electro-punk outfit Le Tigre – best known for the hit ‘Deceptacon’ – becoming a champion for girls, queers and femmes worldwide.
Now the band is back together and performing at a number of stages across Australia as well as at a number of festivals like Golden Plains and Mona Foma. The band is ready and waiting to unleash their pandora’s box of punk and introduce their boundary-pushing music to a new generation of riot grrrls. Let the chaos ensue.
Presented by Triple R, tickets to see Bikini Kill on March 7 at The Forum are now sold-out, but a new March 8 show has been added. Get them before they go on the Ticketek website.