quarter notes | Bikini Kill, Royal Oak Music Theatre, September 15, 2026

I haven’t seen Bikini Kill live in what feels like a VERY long time. They have been through at least two other times since I moved to the Midwest. I thought, I didn’t want to see them somewhere large. I thought, I hate Royal Oak Music Theater. And I also thought, I do not need this any more. There are younger folks who do, and I was so happy that the front row was majority female or nonbinary and they were all excited and dancing.

I thought about running into the center and starting a pit during "Don't Need You." The audience chanted for Tobi every time she came out to sing. Kathleen stopped the show to pull out someone getting squished - “that’s what we do.” YES IT IS. People kept yelling for "White Boy."

But when they first walked out onstage my eyes kept welling up with tears and I could not figure out why. Part of it was probably memories of living in Seattle over 30 years ago, when I showed up with a duffel bag and an air mattress and just figured it out. I wasn’t sad, it had been a perfectly fine day in a mostly fine week (aside from the fascism). It wasn't nostalgia – I don't want to go backwards, ever – but I once did very much need this and was astonished and relieved by their existence. Now I am here on the other side of all of it and the tears were tears of gratitude, I think, and comfort and relief. 

Kathleen said towards the end that she hoped if we were standing near someone we wanted to get to know that she hoped we would talk to them because that’s how we got Bikini Kill. And also she said earlier that she was happy to see all the young female presenting and non binary folks and that she was so excited to see what art and music they would create.  Maybe that’s why I was crying. 

Ganser from Chicago opened, and I feel like I've seen them open before for someone else. They were great, the audience loved them, I'm going to start paying attention, I wish I'd bought a record on the way out.

quarter notes are tiny short missives that exist so I don't give my words away to social media, AI and the algorithm. You might get an email about them and you might not. They are impressions, they are not necessarily complete statements.