The Julie Ruin and Screaming Females played a swampy sold-out show at Il Motore

When you’re north of 30, you get used to feeling old at shows. But at the sold-out Julie Ruin / Screaming Females show at Montreal’s Il Motore last Friday, I felt positively ancient. Maybe it was the gaggle of kids camped out in front of the stage an hour before showtime, or the excessive public necking on display throughout the venue, but the pre-show atmosphere immediately brought to mind the feeling of anticipation I felt at shows in the mid-90’s (and not only because of the inclusion of the night’s pre-eminent 90’s figurehead). Opening the show were New Jersey’s Screaming Females, a band that simply should not be relegated to opening slots any longer. The band mostly stuck to material from 2012’s excellent double-LP Ugly for the duration of their 30-minute set, which featured front-woman Marissa Paternoster in typically fierce form. This set was a tad more subdued than their barnburner of a headlining set at the Don Giovanni Records showcase I caught in Brooklyn this past February, but it’s unfair to compare the two, given the hometown advantage and an enthusiastic (and drunk) festival crowd.

With no local on this show, the band had their work cut out for them, and did a great job of keeping the attention of a crowd anxiously awaiting a glimpse of Kathleen Hannah. There might be no better guitarist than Marissa in the punk / indie world right now, and with the ease with which she was effortlessly pulling out ridiculous solo after solo, culminating by performing splayed out Hendrix-like across the stage, its only a matter of time before the Females will be headlining venues much larger than this. For a taste of their great live show, you can now pick up their Steve Albini produced Live At the Hideout LP via Don Giovanni Records, which is out today. After an hour-plus wait, The Julie Ruin finally took the stage, and put on a 75-minute set of their spirited blend of danceable new-wave and emotional power-pop. The enthusiasm in the crowd was fever-level, especially given that this was likely the first time the mostly young crowd had seen any Kathleen Hannah band live.

While the crowd hushed between songs, seemingly awaiting a missive from Kathleen, she was having none of that, and if anything, was having fun just goofing around. She addressed her years away from the spotlight by nicknaming herself  “Rip Van Riot Girl,” and joked that she didn’t even know that Sleater Kinney were a band, which led to a great deal of murmuring throughout the crowd that she had dissed everybody’s second favourite riot girl outfit (it was obviously a joke – watch a video of the banter below).

The band ran through the majority of their debut Run Fast LP, and threw a few concessions to old school fans by adding in renditions of Bikini Kill’s “This Is Not A Test,” as well as Le Tigre’s “Eau De Bedroom Dancing,” which were by far the best received songs of the night. It’s not that The Julie Ruin material doesn’t stack up to Kathleen Hannah’s previous bands, but the songs simply have’t had a chance to really permeate with crowds yet (at least judging by this one show).

This was Hannah’s first live appearance here in 10-odd years, so expectations might have been set unreasonably high, and were likely only raised by last year’s excellent The Punk Singer documentary, which was chock-full of vintage footage of both Bikini Kill and Le Tigre at their hair-raising heights. While the show may not have reached those levels of greatness, Kathleen is still an undeniably captivating front-person, and has a real rapport with her fans that feels genuine. It will be interesting to see where The Julie Ruin go from here, and if they manage to strike a chord with audiences based off of the bands’ own merits. You can check out a few additional photos from each band’s set below.

Screaming Females 

The Julie Ruin