Bikini Kill in London, 10 June 2019

Photos by Keira Anee

Last night Keira and I (plus just about everyone we know in the DIY scene!) went to see Bikini Kill at Brixton Academy, and it was pretty fucking amazing. This is the band I completely fell in love with as a teenager – their songs were both a mirror and a hammer for a girl struggling to find her voice in the midst of a teenage cyclone of love, hate, abuse and sexual violence. I first picked up a guitar to play along with them, and they’ve been the biggest influence on all my musical doings as an adult – LOUD WOMEN would not exist without Bikini Kill, and certainly the back catalogues of most the bands I’ve been in owe a huge debt to Bikini Kill. (Possibly quite literally – last night I realised quite how many lyrics seem to have hopped straight out of Kathleen Hanna’s mouth and into my songs, oops! KH, if you’re reading this, I owe you a few pints 🙂 )

A full review is coming once I pull myself together (pretty much lost my shit during ‘Feels Blind’ and haven’t recovered since), and after I’ve been back to see them again tonight because oh my, how could I not? There are still tickets available here – come and bounce/sing/cry/celebrate with me!

Huge thanks to Kelly, the Queen Bee of DHP Family, for passes that allowed us to put our girl Keira right at the front to capture these awesome photos of the three bands.