Nick Foulk January 23rd, 2019 - 10:36 PM
Singer and actress Courtney Love has revived her long-standing feud with rock band Bikini Kill. Specifically mentioning her longtime rival, the band’s singer Kathleen Hanna, Love took to social media to comment on Bikini Kill’s upcoming reunion shows. The band recently announced a small group of reunion shows would be held this Spring in New York and Los Angeles, which is what caught Love’s attention and caused her to comment on the feud yet again. The post that Love commented on was by BUST Magazine, remarking on how quickly Bikini Kill’s tickets sold out. In one of her comments Love refers to the band as “the biggest hoax in rock and roll” and went on to call the band amateurs. The comments made by Love on the post have since been deleted.
Courtney Love and Kathleen Hanna have been enemies since the 1990s, meaning this feud has survived over two decades. Originally, the two began to dislike each other after an altercation at the 1995 Lollapalooza Festival, which the exact details of are unknown. What can be agreed upon is that the two musicians got into a confrontation that turned physical during the festival and have disliked each other ever since. The reunion of Bikini Kill was the perfect opportunity for Love to reignite her feud with the group, since they had not performed any major shows together since the band’s breakup in 1997. Before breaking up, the group had released three full length albums and become well known in the punk rock community as some of the pioneers of the modern feminist punk movement. Some of Bikini Kill’s more notable songs include the energetic anthem “Rebel Girl” and the timeless “Feels Blind.” Prior to the announcement of their upcoming reunion tour, the only time Bikini Kill had performed live since their breakup was in 2017 when the group performed one song at a book release event.
Courtney Love was another member of the feminist punk scene that grew rapidly in the 1990s, performing mainly with her band Hole. Throughout the 1990s, Love worked hard to prove herself to the punk rock community, finding success with songs such as “Celebrity Skin” and “Doll Parts.” The popularity of the albums Live Through This and Celebrity Skin ensured that Love and Hole would both go down as major contributors to modern punk rock music. Love also cemented her stardom with her marriage to the legendary Kurt Cobain before his death, with the two having one child together. While neither Hanna or Love are in the spotlight much nowadays, both had a powerful impact on the music industry and the rivalry between the two continues to persist long past either of their careers on the cutting edge of punk music. The list of tour dates for Bikini Kill’s upcoming shows can be found below, along with the post that Courtney Love had commented on.
Tour Dates:
04-25 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
05-02 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
05-31 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
06-01 New York, NY – Terminal 5
06-05 Brooklyn, NY – King’s Theatre
Photo Credits: Mauricio Alvarado
