I still can’t believe I got to see Pussy Riot’s show a couple nights ago! They’ve toured Pussy Riot: Riot Days all around the world and then stopped in cute lil Edmonton??? We’re so lucky. They performed at The Starlite Room along with local post-hardcore band, Midnight Peg on Wednesday Night.
The show’s producer, Alexander Cheparukhin, stepped on the stage before they began to let us know that
Pussy Riot is not a punk band.
From their website: “Riot Days is a play based on the memoir of Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina. It’s a story of resistance, repression and revolution in a mixture of concert, rally, theater and political happening.”
He talked about how he got involved with Pussy Riot, friends they’ve lost, and the current war in Ukraine. A QR Code to donate to the children’s hospital “Ohmatdyt” in Kyiv came on the screen and he tells the crowd that 50% of all merch sales will also go to support this children’s hospital. I bought their neon pink kitty tshirt.
Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist protest and performance art group
based in Moscow, formed in 2011 by, most notably, 22 year old Nadya Tolokonnikova and about 15 other women. After 5 of their members staged an unauthorized performance at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, in February 2012, they gained global notoriety.
This protest was directed at the Orthodox Church leaders, who are linked to and support Putin. Lyrically, they cover themes including feminism, anti-authoritarianism, LGBT rights, and opposition to Putin and his policies. Two members, Nadya and Maria, were identified and arrested, then convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for this demonstration.
Interestingly, Wikipedia says this:
Following release, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina said they were no longer members of the group, although they appeared at various events around the world using the name Pussy Riot. Other members tried to distance themselves from the two, saying that although they were glad for their release, the members were anti-capitalistic and did not support their use of Pussy Riot to make money from songs and tours. After failing to prevent them from using the Pussy Riot name, they declared the group dead.[36]
But anyway, here are some pictures from Pussy Riot: Riot Days
They ended the show talking about the murder of Alexei Navalny, whom Masha described as “the loudest, clearest and brightest voice against Vladimir Putin’s regime,” in the piece she wrote for The Guardian. I also enjoyed this interview about it with Ocula.
And I have to share some of Midnight Peg
They released their album Horn Colic back in late 2022. I recently streamed it for the first time and, after that performance, it will likely be all I listen to for weeks now. That’s just how I do music.
If you like punk (or ‘post-hardcore’ which google tells me is “a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression”), then you should definitely check them out.
And if you like FUN…??? Maybe I’ll see you next time they play in Edmonton. 🙂
Bye!