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Bikini Kill a rock band performing on the stage.

BIKINI KILL - Reunited 'riot grrrl' icons make their Sydney Opera House debut

Sydney – Thursday 27 October, 2022. Legendary punk rockers Bikini Kill will make their long-awaited Sydney Opera House debut as part of its 50th anniversary year, for one show only on 13 March, 2023. The all-female US group will bring their defiant sound and fury to the acoustically renewed Concert Hall, performing music from their iconic feminist songbook including the anthemic hit, “Rebel Girl”.

Sydney Opera House Head of Contemporary Music, Ben Marshall, said: “The quintessential band that blends activism and extreme fun, Bikini Kill, will take their rightful place on the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall stage for one of the most anticipated shows of the year. Kathleen Hanna, Kathi Wilcox and Tobi Vail are feminist performance-art punks whose moment never went away and are arguably needed now more than ever. Mesmerising, clever and surreal, this is a rare chance to see this legendary, razor-sharp live band that will blow you away, while revealing the constant struggle that animates them.”

Exploding onto the early-‘90s west-coast indie rock scene, Bikini Kill fused the abrasive, visceral energy of punk with the radical politics of feminism, igniting a movement that came to be known as ‘riot grrrl’ via their political lyrics, zines and confrontational live shows – an ethos that continues to reverberate across music, art and culture more than 30 years later.

Led by the irrepressible Kathleen Hanna – who famously wrote the phrase ‘smells like teen spirit’ on Kurt Cobain’s apartment wall – the Olympia, Washington group (Tobi Vail on drums, Billy Karren on guitar and Kathi Wilcox on bass) were active between 1990 and 1997. Their brief but influential reign yielded two full-length albums, several EPs and compilations including classics such as “New Radio”, “Double Dare Ya” and “Rebel Girl”. Hanna went on to form the exhilarating electro-punk outfit Le Tigre, becoming a hero to generations of girls, queers and femmes.

Since reuniting in the the spring of 2019 for their first shows in more than two decades, the band has drawn rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. Their music and message has retained all of its righteous fury and cathartic power, with original members Hanna, Wilcox and Vail playing sold out shows in NYC, LA, London, and headlining Riot Fest in Chicago.

EVENT DETAILS 
WHAT: Bikini Kill
WHEN:    8pm Monday13 March, 2023
WHERE:   Concert Hall
TICKETS:  From $79 + booking fee // sydneyoperahouse.com // +61 2 9250 7777
Insiders pre-sale: 9am, Tuesday 1 November
What’s On pre-sale: 12pm, Wednesday 2 November
On sale: 9am, Friday 4 November

For media information, please contact:

Julia Barnes 
Senior Communications Manager
0402 678 589 
jbarnes@sydneyoperahouse.com