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When Bikini Kill were an active band, from 1990 to 1997, they never once gave a television performance. This makes sense. Bikini Kill and the larger riot grrrl movement got mainstream press attention, but they were an underground phenomenon at a time when even mainstream alt-rock didn’t show up on TV that often. Even if there was any chance at a big, popular breakthrough, the famous riot grrrl press blackout probably put a stop to any chance of that. It’s a little surprising to learn that Bikini Kill never even popped up on somebody’s cable access show, but they apparently didn’t. Instead, they saved that occasion for an episode of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, 27 years after their breakup.
Bikini Kill reunited in 2017, and they’ve been touring on and off since then. Earlier this year, frontwoman Kathleen Hanna published her memoir Rebel Girl: My Life As A Feminist Punk. Last night, Bikini Kill were on Colbert, playing the song that gave that book its name. And from all available evidence, it was the band’s first-ever TV performance. (Hanna played Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night with her band the Julie Ruin in 2013, but that’s different. As far as I can tell, Le Tigre never gave a TV performance, either.)
“Rebel Girl” remains a great song, and Bikini Kill played it with guttural verve on Colbert. They’re a canonical band now, but they didn’t make themselves sound too clean or professional or anything. If this kind of attention is what they want, they certainly deserve it. Watch the performance below.