KMK, The Menstrual Cramps and Drunken Butterfly stormed The Exchange, Bristol with and explosive night of riot grrrl thrills to raise money for this year’s LaDIYfest event.
The gig took place in the venue’s bar area and was soon utterly rammed as people poured in for Bristol’s seminal all-female band, Drunken Butterfly. We soon spotted an unfeasibly prolific Bristol gig-goer, who goes by the moniker Ricardo Camembert on Instagram. If he was in the house this was clearly the gig to be at on Friday night.
The ‘Flys served up a mix of punk with folk touches and so melodic a melodica made an appearance. Lyrics covered a range of social and political issues including Tory austerity and street harassment. I hadn’t seen the band perform in a number of years and their sound has really expanded and evolved in that time. It’s a band not to be missed so follow them online for the next gig.
Next up came The Menstrual Cramps, a band who mix feminism with bags of irreverent fun. They are quickly amassing a large fanbase from gigging, social media and press attention. Some fans I talked to at the gig had found out about them through YouTube and were happy they’d made it to Briz. Live the band are far more riotous and heavy than you might think from online recordings, and their feminist anthems were delivered over snarling guitars and brutal bass lines that sounded just great on the venue’s classic Ampeg 8×10 cab.
The Menstrual Cramps’ lyrics cover topics like culling the Tories, unsolicited dick pics and fracking delivered with just the right mix of fury and humour. My favourite song was the one where they dissed indie boys in bands that think they’re all that – can’t stand those dudes.
Images of KMK by Cheri, others by David.
DB’s Darcie helpfully stood in for our bassist Nat, who was arriving later, during Kiss Me, Killer’s sound check, instantly picking up the riff to The Nuns’ Do You Want Me on My Knees?
Following The Menstrual Cramps was going to be a tough task for Kiss Me, Killer as they’d really invigorated the crowd and we didn’t want to let them down with anything sub-par. After a verse of Narcisstic Tendencies we hit ‘em with Snakes, the title track to our forthcoming EP, and it went down well. As the set progressed the movement in the room increased and by the time we squeezed in a quick encore the crowd was really buzzing. The mostly young audience were probably our most receptive crowd yet and really seemed to ‘get’ the band. They were also graciously sympathetic when we had to restart one of our songs after it kinda fell apart… ooops.
Monies raised from the night go towards this year’s big LaDIYFest Event, which takes place at the The Southville Centre, 4 November. Kiss Me, Killer are among the acts performing. You won’t want to miss it.