All Photos by Holly Homan.
On the evening of May 5 I had the honor of finally seeing the infamous Pussy Riot. For those of you not in the know, Pussy Riot is fronted by Nadya Tolokonnikov who was imprisoned in 2012 for two years in Russia for openly criticizing the Putin regime. She is now Putin’s most wanted “criminal.” The ordeal made her more determined and more powerful than ever and she’s become an activist for human rights. Pussy Riot has raised money for Ukraine and for Planned Parenthood. She dressed like a naughty school girl with a white blouse and black jumper with a very short skirt. She also wore large framed glasses and black fishnet stockings. She was accompanies by two dancers in skimpy outfits and sporting terrorist hoods. Pussy Riot is more performance art than an actual band. Nadya sang along to a soundtrack. Their music was part punk, part metal and part death metal.
Despite their provocative clothing and even more provocative dance moves, they aren’t exploitative. Rather, I viewed them as empowering. Even though this night was to showcase female artists, there were plenty of men in attendance and some sang even along. Not one made disparaging or vulgar comments.
Pussy Riot stands for gender fluidity, inclusivity, matriarchy, love, laughter, decentralization, anarchy, and anti-authoritarianism. There are many attacks aimed at women happening today all over the world. The Taliban, Iran and even here in the United States, women’s rights are being attacked. We need more like Pussy Riot to not only protest against these atrocities but to also actively fight them.
I have waited a long time to see Pussy Riot and am so glad I came out to see them.
As I mentioned, this was an evening to showcase female talent. Preceding Pussy Riot was Seattle’s Thunderpussy. Thunderpussy is composed of vocalist Molly Sides, guitarist Whitney Petty, bassist Leah Julius, and drummer Lindsey Elias. Molly, a professional dancer, constantly strutted about the stage with perfectly choreographed twists and spins.
Highly influenced by 70s rock, they did a raucous cover of Heart’s Barracuda. My response to this was, move over, Ann Wilson. You have a rival. Thunderpussy have had their own battle with the authorities. When they applied to trademark their name, United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected their application claiming the name violated the 1946 Lanham Act, citing a vulgar definition from urbandictionary.com. Eventually they received their trademark after winning at the Supreme Court.
This was my second time seeing Thunderpussy and I was just as impressed this time as last with their performance.
Prior to Thunderpussy was band calling themselves Skating Polly. The band, hailing from Oklahoma City, consists of step siblings Kelli Drew Mayo and Peyton Mckenna Bighorse who were nine and fourteen when they formed in 2009. This powerhouse trio is rounded out by drummer Kurtis Mayo.
Skating Polly’s music was sensuous and moody one minute and the next it was raucous kick up your heels. Part way through the show Peyton (who mostly played lead guitar) and Kelli (on bass) switched instruments with each playing both instruments with great prowess.
I arrived at 8:00 just after Zella Day came on stage. Zella Day is a young woman with a sugary sweet voice who plays some wicked guitar licks. She oozed charisma from every pore and she had pipes. During one of her numbers she addressed the audience and admitted she forgot how the second verse went. She then made up a verse about not being able to remember. This brought laughter and cheers from the adoring crowd.
The evening was part of a two day festival called Belltown Bloom held at Seattle’s Crocodile.
The Crocodile is a long standing club that I started going to in the late 80s. However, they moved to a different location. They’re still in Belltown but on a different street. I went to the old location and got very confused. I had to use my phone to look up their address. I hadn’t been there since before the pandemic. Although I miss the funkiness of the old Crocodile, this new location was great and I look forward to seeing many more shows there.
Pussy Riot
Thunderpussy
Skating Polly
Zella Day
