Bikini Kill's tour hit NYC over the weekend with shows at The Rooftop at Pier 17 on Friday (7/8) with Ribbon Stage, and Irving Plaza on Saturday (7/9) with Jim Andralis and The Syntonics. We went to Irving Plaza on Friday, which was a fantastic night, with the band and the crowd at full energy the whole time. With the two years of Covid delays for this tour to everything else people have been through during that time, the audience was seriously amped for this show. There was constant cheering, with the audience going wild, and the front half of the room moving from opening song "Carnival" through "Rebel Girl," and the encore of "Double Dare Ya" and "Suck My Left One."
The shows were taking place less three weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe Vs. Wade, and this was Bikini Kill's first time at Irving Plaza since they played a Rock for Choice benefit at the venue in 1994 with Joan Jett, Shudder to Think & Veruca Salt, and both Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail made reference to that show on Saturday. Kathleen said she remembered it maybe being their biggest show up to that point, saying how big Irving seemed to them. She also pointed out how they've had shows after Trump was elected and after other big socio-political events but Saturday felt like partying after the end of the world.