Bikini Kill at The Rooftop at Pier 17
On Friday, July 8, 2022, Bikini Kill headlined The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York, NY. The band was originally scheduled to perform in Brooklyn, NY at Celebrate Brooklyn! at Prospect Park Bandshell on August 4, 2020 but the show was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic. Their NYC concert was rescheduled to take place at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in Manhattan over a year ago, with tickets going on sale in April 2021. It is very unusual for me to commit to a concert over a year before it occurs but I saw the band for the first time back in June 2019 and felt I couldn’t miss their next performance, whenever and wherever it would actually take place.
The opening act for the band’s first New York City concert in over three years was Ribbon Stage. The band released their EP in 2020 and performed in front of an audience for the first time at the Rooftop. When I watched their set and heard their songs, I told friends they reminded me of Beat Happening and learned later that their EP was released by K Records, the label created by Beat Happening’s Calvin Johnson.
Bikini Kill took the stage at The Rooftop at Pier 17 about 8:30PM to an eager and excited crowd. Kicking off their set with “New Radio,” the band looked like they were having a blast right off the bat. Kathleen Hanna, Kathi Wilcox, Tobi Vail, and Sara Landreau (The Julie Ruin), played songs covering the Bikini Kill discography. The members rotated instruments depending on the song. As an example, when Tobi left the drumkit to sing “Hamster Baby” and “Tell Me So” back-to-back, Sara played drums while Kathleen moved to guitar.
After the two song encore (“Double Dare Ya” and “Rebel Girl”), I realized it was such a pleasure to see an influential band having fun at a scenic location (a punk band playing with views of Manhattan skyscrapers and a bridge behind them!) with their fans of all ages, other musicians (I saw Ira & Georgia of Yo La Tengo plus Guy Picciotto), and at least one elected official (a state assembly member) in attendance too.
Bikini Kill will perform again the next night (Saturday, July 9th) at Irving Plaza.