Music review: Bikini Kill, Academy, Glasgow - 'cult appeal and kick-ass glamour'

Covering more than 20 songs in little over an hour, this show was a quickfire succession of short sharp shocks, writes Fiona Shepherd

Bikini Kill, Academy, Glasgow ****

The name sounds like it could have come straight out of a Russ Meyer movie, and Bikini Kill certainly share cult appeal and kickass glamour with Meyer’s sexploitation films.

Their ferocious, political music was forged in and for small club venues in early Nineties Olympia but since splitting later that decade, their righteous reputation and pulling power has only grown.

Bikini Kill PIC: RMV/Shutterstock

Twenty years on, their original fan tribe and its offspring has reconvened en masse to watch a band who want nothing to do with heritage rock.

With a second Trump presidency looking like a real possibility in their homeland, there was much to rage about, poured into their mighty punk rumble.

The set was a quickfire succession of short sharp shocks, covering more than twenty songs in little over an hour. Charismatic frontwoman Kathleen Hanna is a lightning rod, telling the audience she believed in “the power of us” even more than power of music, while supping on an elixir she claimed was PJ Harvey's pee.

Humour has always been a trace element in their ethos. Bikini Kill demonstrate that it’s better to party while politicking, and the springy bassline and martial drumbeat of Feels Blind stemmed the initial flow of nosebleed punk tunes.

They also varied the menu with some punk rock instrument swapping. Drummer Tobi Vail fronted a few numbers, while bassist Kathi Wilcox minded her kit. Touring guitarist Sara Landeau, meanwhile, was a still but potent presence stage right.

Both Hanna and Vail hailed a kinship with Glasgow's DIY indie scene from yesteryear, and were treated to a female-led rendition of the city’s motivational “here we f***ing go” chant.

Having created a safer gig environment for women, they happily let loose with the rip-roaring garage rocker Rebel Girl in an encore dedicated to feminist art and the smell of weed.