I last saw Kathleen Hanna intoxicate a Chicago crowd in 2005. That was with her electro-pop band Le Tigre. During the intervening 9 years, Kathleen was kept out of action by a debilitating battle with Lyme Disease. At its worse, she decided to give away all her old Riot Grrl writings to NYU, wrapping up her life because she didn’t think she’d be around much longer. Thankfully, she received treatment for the disease and is now fully recovered and able to resume her career as pop music’s Feminist Laureate.
 Sara Landeau, The Julie Ruin
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This time around it’s not with Le Tigre, but rather with The Julie Ruin – a new band named after her 1998 solo album and consisting of Kenny Mellman (of Kiki and Herb) on keyboards, former Bikini Kill bandmate Kathi Wilcox on bass, Sara Landeau on guitar and Carmine Covelli on drums. While they don’t quite pack the same musical punch as Le Tigre or Bikini Kill, that doesn’t really matter, because this is really a celebration of Kathleen Hanna’s return to the stage.
 Kathleen Hanna - The look of love.
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From the moment Kathleen walked onstage, dressed in a denim leotard and white tights, this wasn’t simply a show, it was a celebration. Kathleen’s between song banter was hilarious – as when she referred to her outfit as being “Norma Rae up top and soft porn below” – and the crowd also felt comfortable to interact with her. At one point a woman suggested that The Julie Ruin could be called “Adult Angst”. Kathleen mused upon that with approval: “Adult angst. I like that. Cuz we’re, like, grown-ups, right?”
 Kathi Wilcox, The Julie Ruin
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The set list was mostly composed of songs from the classic
Julie Ruin solo album (“VGI,” “Radical or Pro-Parental,” “Breakout a Town”) and the recent Julie Ruin album
Run Fast, but they also snuck in a Bikini Kill song (“This is Not a Test”) and a pair of Le Tigre songs (“Eau d’Bedroom Dancing” and “Friendship Station”) for good measure. There was something to leave every Hanna fan smiling. And smile we did, as Kathleen danced and smiled and laughed with high energy throughout the show.
But there was no mistaking the fact that this wasn’t the Kathleen Hanna of yore. This was an older and wiser punk singer. As one would expect, her close brush with death has resulted in lyrics that reflect on her past. In “Run Fast,” she sang about the struggles and triumphs of her Riot Grrl days: “Years later we’d be told that we weren’t real punks by boys in bands who acted like our dads when they were drunk / And they can all brag now ‘bout how they were there when we took over the stage and we took our fair share / But whatever the truth in the end we made tiny islands where we didn’t always have to be afraid /And an X will forever mark the spot where we decided we had just about enough.”
 Kathleen Hanna – Joie de Punk.
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The importance of Grrl Power was emphasized when Hanna told the story of how she met guitarist Sara Landeau at a Girls Rock Camp. She told a funny tale of how the two of them were roadies for a girl band performance and how people watching them plug in the equipment and set-up the amps, etc. assumed they were bitchy stage moms, but “No, we’re roadies!” And she explained how during band camp, the girls write their own song and then perform it, and this band’s song was called, “Good Luck, You Suck”: “It was really good. We should cover it.” She was visibly touched when she was told that a couple of the teenage girls in attendance were current rock campers, and she talked about how she believes that the younger generation has their act together so much better than her generation – but that she hopes that her generation did a thing or two that will inspire the younger generation too.
Another rock camp story introduced the song “Goodnight Goodbye”. Kathleen explained that she had written the chorus but didn’t have verses for the song, so she took it to a lyric-writing class at rock camp and asked the girls to think of what the verses should be about. One girl said, “It’s about a boy wanting to go all the way and you’re like, ‘Goodnight, Goodbye!’” The verses that Hanna chose to write are among her sharpest ever – looking back on Bikini Kill from the perspective of a middle-aged woman: “It happens when you’re not 20 but 41 / And you have to sink it to the you you’ve now become / Will the teenage sneer you so cultivated / Sneer back at you and make you feel so hated?”
If the show was any indication, the answer to that is a resounding NO! The teenagers (and kids too!) in the audience revere Hanna and she loves them just as much in return. As “Run Fast,” a song about her own teenage years, wound down the show she looked at the girls from rock camp and smiled with such admiration at them that it was hard not to get a bit choked-up. Rarely do you see pioneers so eager to pass the torch to the next generation. But thankfully Hanna still has a lot left to give.
 Screaming Females guitar hero Marissa Paternoster, in a rare quiet moment
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Another inspiration for the young girls in the audience – hell, for the old girls in the audience too! – is Marissa Paternoster, whose band Screaming Females opened the show. I’d never heard of her before, but from the second she stepped onstage looking like a young David Johansen in a black dress, I was captivated. Although she doesn’t play my type of music – at least live, the band is far more heavy metal than punk – Paternoster is an amazing guitarist. Her lightning fast shredding blows away the average metal guitarist, although sadly the mix was so poor that her vocals were completely inaudible in all but the quietest songs. Oh, and did I mention that she’s super cute? Maybe, just maybe, my crush-o-meter hit a 10 during her performance. Between Marissa the Guitar Hero and Kathleen the Punk Singer, this night offered a hell of a lot for young rocker grrls to look up to. Can’t wait to see the next generation give it a go!
