Bikini Kill, Phranc, Team Dresch and Mary Lou Lord at the Sailors Union of the Pacific, Seattle, WA, March 3, 1995
This Don Blackstone-designed poster advertises a concert by Bikini Kill, Phranc, Team Dresch, and Mary Lou Lord at Seattle’s Sailors Union of the Pacific on March 3, 1995.
Bikini Kill is a Punk band formed in Olympia, Washington in 1990 by vocalist Kathleen Hanna (b. 1968), bassist Kathi Wilcox (b 1969), and drummer Tobi Vail (b. 1969), who met while attending The Evergreen State College, and guitarist Billy Karren (b. unknown). The band encouraged a female-centric environment at their shows, handing out lyrics sheets and encouraging women to come to the front of the stage. The band continues to be recognized as a pioneer of the Riot Grrrl movement, though they were also harassed and vilified throughout the 1990s. Their eponymous first EP was released in 1992 and their final album, Reject All American, was released in 1996, and they disbanded the following year. The band reunited in 2017 and has toured occasionally since, with guitarist Erica Dawn Lyle (b. unknown) having replaced Karren in the lineup.
Phranc, born Susan Gottlieb in 1957, is a singer and songwriters who began her career in the 1970s Los Angeles Punk Rock scene, before shifting to a self-proclaimed “All-American Jewish lesbian folksinger.” Her first band, Nervous Gender, was influential in the development of the Electropunk genre. She has opened for bands including The Smiths, Hüsker Dü, Violent Femmes, and Billy Bragg. Phranc was influential in the Queercore movement, recognized by performances with Team Dresch, Bikini Kill, Hole, and others. She has since become a visual artist and resides with her family in Santa Monica, California.
Team Dresch is a Punk band from Olympia, Washington. In the early 1990s, Donna Dresch (b. unknown), a bassist and guitarist, met guitarist and vocalist Jody Bleyle (b. unknown), and in 1993 they formed an “all-dyke” band called Team Dresch, alongside Kaia Wilson (b. 1974) on guitar and vocals, and Marceo Martinez (b. unknown) on drums. Team Dresch heavily influenced the Queercore movement, which gave voice through zines and music to the interests and concerns of LGBTQ+ people in the Punk scene. Queercore began in the mid-1980s and Dresch had roots in the movement as a contributor to the zines J.D.s and Outpunk, as well as writing her own, Chainsaw, influencing the band’s style and involvement Queercore from its inception. The band was featured in Lucy Thane’s 1997 documentary She’s Real (Worse Than Queer), which showcased the 1990s Riot Grrrl and Queercore scenes. Team Dresch disbanded in 1998 but reunited in 2004 to headline the Olympia Queercore festival Home-a-Go-Go and have toured and performed occasionally in the years since. In 2019, the band, with Jealous Butcher Records, reissued their entire catalogue in honor of their 25th anniversary, which allowed Martinez, who had recently come out as transmasculine, to have their name corrected in the credit. Though Team Dresch released only two albums, those records deeply bonded listeners, many of whom were fellow Punk musicians or struggling LGBTQ youth.
Mary Lou Lord (b. 1965) is an Indie Folk musician who attended Berklee College of Music, where she studied audio production and engineering. She began busking in London after college and later in Boston and Cambridge. She put out music with Kill Rock Stars, an Olympia, Washington-based label, after meeting founder Tinuviel Sampson (b. unknown) while busking in Harvard Square. Lord was also friends with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain (b. 1967) around the time of Nevermind’s release in 1991, which launched the band to international fame.
The Seattle Sailors’ Union of the Pacific building was designed by local architect Fred Rogers and constructed in 1954 at 2505 1st Ave in Belltown. The SUP was founded in 1885 in San Francisco, California, as a labor union of mariners, boatmen, and fishermen working aboard US flag vessels. Seattle's SUP Hall was one of the most prominent of the many labor union halls constructed in Belltown after WWII, featuring offices as well as 22 small apartments for sailors between ships, and services such as a bar, café, gym, and barber shop. Until 1986, the building housed the Trade Winds restaurant and Palm Room nightclub, and the SUP Hall hosted bands including Presidents of the United States of America, Radiohead, The Posies, Super Deluxe, and Bikini Kill in the 1990s. The building now houses The Crocodile, and the Seattle SUP is located in Fishermen’s Terminal.
