Live Shows: Fever Ray and Christeene, Roadrunner, Boston, MA 5/5/23

I'm not a huge one for electronic music. Sure, I had my techno phase in the late 90's along with everyone else, but it's a genre I'm typically lacking in these days. However, I've been trying to get out of my comfort zone a bit more lately, so when I had the chance to see Fever Ray and Christeene at Roadrunner last Friday, I made the trip into Boston to see what all the fuss was about.

Christeene was an experience to say the least. Christeene is a drag character of Paul Soileau, and a live show was a spectacle as much as it was a show. After the first song, Christeene declared that she was there to "put fire" up the crowd's "tight unstretched buttholes," and that just set the tone for the rest of the set. Christeene was accompanied by keyboard and sax, and the set was just pure anarchy. I was reminded of artists like Divine, GG Allin, Peaches, and Rammstein at different points, as Christeene stormed around the stage and removing an article of clothing between each song until she was wearing the bare minimum, and miming masturbation throughout the set. A song like "BEAUCOUP MOROCCO" has the chorus of "Beaucoup Morocco, Beaucoup Morocco, Beaucoup Morocco, fuck fuck fuck fuck" and "Fix My Dick," this was not subtle or tame. It was spectacular.

Fever Ray may have been the exact opposite of Christeene. Instead of loose anarchy and chaos, Fever Ray's set seemed much more carefully planned and choreographed. Each member of the band took the stage one by one (electronic drummer, keyboards, and two background singers) until Fever Ray entered last. Fever Ray and the singers had specific moves they did in unison during certain songs, and instead of an ongoing glorious trainwreck, it was a much more restrained affair. Very, very slowly, the music went from ultra laid back songs like "New Utensils" and "To the Moon and Back" to more energetic songs towards the end of the set. It went from the chill room at a rave to a full on dance party in the course of an hour. And the crowd was there for it. The audience was filled with people who are megafans of Fever Ray. This was far from a show for the curious as virtually everyone was singing along to every word as if it was a Taylor Swift concert. Fever Ray has very dedicated fans, and their enthusiasm was contagious. This easily could have been a night I stayed home, but my comfort zone wasn't as much fun as this.

Live Shows: Bikini Kill and Brontez Purnell, Roadrunner, Boston, MA 4/9/23

Photo by Ken Sears

I've been a fan of Bikini Kill for what seems like forever, but for some reason I've never gotten a chance to see them live. The Boston date has been moved, cancelled, changed venues, and rescheduled seemingly into oblivion over the past three years, but it finally happened this past Sunday night.

Bikini Kill in 2023 should be a pure nostalgia act, and the crowd should be filled with fans in their forties and fifties reliving their high school and college years, and there was that. But a huge percentage of the crowd was comprised of teenagers and college students who just recently discovered Bikini Kill and were seeing their new idols for the first time. And Bikini Kill delivered.

From the opening cry of "Revolution girl style now!" in "Double Dare Ya," they blasted through twenty three songs that are all classics at this point. The younger crowd injected an energy into the entire experience for everyone involved. Kathleen Hanna was delighted at the mosh pit during "No Backrub," a song about self care. My moshing days are long over, and a Bikini Kill mosh pit is no place for a middle aged white cis male, but I felt more nostalgic watching the pit at this show than I ever have before. I make the joke that most pits tend to be kids larping the 90's, but these kids nailed it. It was more just bouncing around into each other to have fun and experience a fantastic night of music together. The kids were all right...

As was expected, Hanna discussed politics a lot between songs, but there were great moments of levity along with the (unfortunately still relevant) politics. While holding a bouquet of flowers, she joked that she hopes she doesn't get blamed for ripping anyone off, which was an obvious shot at the nonsense Courtney Love/Olivia Rodrigo controversy. At one point Hanna realized that a venue filled with over two thousand people was dead silent and was hanging on her every word, and she said the crowd just undid years of generational trauma.

The main set closed with the always fiery "Suck My Left One" and included the fantastic "Carnival." They came back for a one song encore, which was obviously "Rebel Girl." You knew it was going to be played and when, but it still didn't lessen the impact of seeing THAT song performed live. While many of their peers are engaging in cash grab reunions, Bikini Kill are doing it for all the right reasons, and it shows.

Brontez Purnell wasn't an obvious opener, but one that worked quite well. He's primarily known as a writer more than a musician, but for those of us that enjoy not completely obvious openers, he was perfect. Purnell's music is more lighthearted with definite 90's indie rock roots, and it might have been the perfect choice to ease us all into the evening.

Check out our photo album for this show over at Facebook.