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Local riot grrrl band Kitten Forever just held their 10th Anniversary show at First Avenue in Minneapolis last night, July 23rd. If you’re not familiar with riot grrrls, I suggest you check out some of our previous coverages, including a riot guide.
Although this was First Avenue’s mainroom, the show felt as if it could have been held at the band’s garage. In fact, talking to some fans, they all thought the show was at 7th Street.... and it’s not really obvious why the band chose to play at the large mainroom until you saw all the decorative balloons all over the stage and “Kitten Forever” in balloon writing.
The feeling I got from longtime fans were that of pride, nostalgia, and happiness, as they gather together to share their love for Kitten Forever.
Support for Kitten Forever’s 10th Anniversary Show were “long-term” band families - starting with Tony Peachka. The band's set actually spilled over their allotted 20-minute set, as the curtains started going down at the beginning of their final song.
The other thing to note is that their regular bassist (Bruise Violet’s Danielle) was not available on this night, so they were joined on stage by Frankie Teardrop’s Jordan Bleau.
Royal Brat was up next. As we have previously mentioned, this is the band that featured guitarist Clara Salyer (from Babes in Toyland, Whatever Forever, and many other bands...)
Singer Alex Uhrich was kind enough to announce song titles like ‘Gut’ from their Negative Bone release. It would seem that this set featured many new or unrecorded songs. Among new songs were ‘Taxi’ (a song about sleeping with an older man), ‘White Car’, and their set closer ‘Avoider’. Of course, these are pending titles and may, in fact, change.
Joke of the show: “What is a pirate’s favorite word?”
Uhrich answered, “Most people think it’s the ‘Arrr’, but it’s really the ‘Sea’.”
Candace didn't quite sounded like any of the other bands on the bill. Instead of a DIY, garagey, or punk sound, Candace sounded a bit polished with their melodic dreampop / shoegazey (and even a little psychedelia) music.
They quickly asked the venue to turn down the lights, citing “It’s like OfficeMax up here!” as they play tracks from their latest album New Future.
Note: although the name Candace is new, the band previously went under the name Is/Is, but changed it in January 2016 to avoid association with the terrorist group ISIS. The band remained the same (lead singer/guitarist/bassist Sarah Rose, bassist/guitarist Sarah Nienaber, and drummer Mara Appel DesLauriers).
Condominium sounded very hardcore metal and punk to me. Although we caught the band a few times in 2012 and 2013 (mostly at the Triple Rock Social Club), they actually have not been around in the recent years. That’s because their drummer Joe B moved to New York, so the band went on hiatus for a while.
Watching their raw energy on stage, you can easily see why Sub Pop Records was so impressed that they signed them for some 7” and cassette releases. Mosh pit/slam dancers will love this band.
Kitten Forever formed in 2006, because Corrie Harrigan would confess, “We started this band so we can play house shows.” The trio hadn’t actually meant to become a real band, but in DIY fashion, they were actually good at it... even though it seemed effortless on their part.
The feminist punk trio (Corrie Harrigan, Laura Larson, and Liz Elton) were clearly inspired by Bikini Kill (even covering ‘I Hate Danger’ near the end of their set) and even recently signed with Atlas Chair (the record label co-founded by Le Tigre’s JD Samson). If you didn’t know, Le Tigre was the pop/militant trio led by Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna.
Kitten Forever played songs from all three albums, including some tracks from their latest 7 Hearts. The cool thing to see was how all three band members switched roles in the band: giving each band member their chance to shine on the mic.
In typical punk shows, all their songs were under two minutes, and they rapidly closed out the show a little before 11:30pm.
Those who stuck around for the encore were given ‘Ice Cream’ and a medley of what sounded like Miley Cyrus’ ‘We Can't Stop” (because of the lyrics it’s our party, we can do whatever we want).
It probably made sense, given that Cyrus started the Happy Hippie Foundation to help LGBTQ youth.
Bands who previously played earlier would show up on the encore with confetti falling from the ceiling. With that, we can’t help but say “Happy Birthday, Kitten Forever.”
Although this was First Avenue’s mainroom, the show felt as if it could have been held at the band’s garage. In fact, talking to some fans, they all thought the show was at 7th Street.... and it’s not really obvious why the band chose to play at the large mainroom until you saw all the decorative balloons all over the stage and “Kitten Forever” in balloon writing.
The feeling I got from longtime fans were that of pride, nostalgia, and happiness, as they gather together to share their love for Kitten Forever.
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Tony Peachka |
The other thing to note is that their regular bassist (Bruise Violet’s Danielle) was not available on this night, so they were joined on stage by Frankie Teardrop’s Jordan Bleau.
|
Royal Brat
|
Singer Alex Uhrich was kind enough to announce song titles like ‘Gut’ from their Negative Bone release. It would seem that this set featured many new or unrecorded songs. Among new songs were ‘Taxi’ (a song about sleeping with an older man), ‘White Car’, and their set closer ‘Avoider’. Of course, these are pending titles and may, in fact, change.
Joke of the show: “What is a pirate’s favorite word?”
Uhrich answered, “Most people think it’s the ‘Arrr’, but it’s really the ‘Sea’.”
|
Candace |
They quickly asked the venue to turn down the lights, citing “It’s like OfficeMax up here!” as they play tracks from their latest album New Future.
Note: although the name Candace is new, the band previously went under the name Is/Is, but changed it in January 2016 to avoid association with the terrorist group ISIS. The band remained the same (lead singer/guitarist/bassist Sarah Rose, bassist/guitarist Sarah Nienaber, and drummer Mara Appel DesLauriers).
|
Condominium
|
Watching their raw energy on stage, you can easily see why Sub Pop Records was so impressed that they signed them for some 7” and cassette releases. Mosh pit/slam dancers will love this band.
Kitten Forever formed in 2006, because Corrie Harrigan would confess, “We started this band so we can play house shows.” The trio hadn’t actually meant to become a real band, but in DIY fashion, they were actually good at it... even though it seemed effortless on their part.
The feminist punk trio (Corrie Harrigan, Laura Larson, and Liz Elton) were clearly inspired by Bikini Kill (even covering ‘I Hate Danger’ near the end of their set) and even recently signed with Atlas Chair (the record label co-founded by Le Tigre’s JD Samson). If you didn’t know, Le Tigre was the pop/militant trio led by Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna.
Kitten Forever played songs from all three albums, including some tracks from their latest 7 Hearts. The cool thing to see was how all three band members switched roles in the band: giving each band member their chance to shine on the mic.
In typical punk shows, all their songs were under two minutes, and they rapidly closed out the show a little before 11:30pm.
|
Kitten Forever |
Bands who previously played earlier would show up on the encore with confetti falling from the ceiling. With that, we can’t help but say “Happy Birthday, Kitten Forever.”
|
Kitten Forever at First Ave (23 July 2016) |
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