Tonight’s Concert Pick: The Coathangers + Slutever at The Barbary
We get it: All-female punk bands from the riot-grrrl era will forever own the genre, and anything that comes after will be a mere shadow of Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. No one’s going to argue that Kathleen Hanna is a damn hard frontwoman to best. (Anyone who would say differently should probably check out the Le Tigre tour documentary Who Took the Bomp? LE TIGRE on Tour, which was recently released on DVD.) But wouldn’t it have been incredibly sad if those angry, we’re-not-taking-your-crap feminist punk genes had died off in the late ’90s? Someone needed to carry the torch, and while many younger acts try, few do it with the same sass (and success) as The Coathangers. With punch-in-the-gut guitar riffs and drums, shrieking and yelping at all vocal ranges, and attitude-laden songs like “Don’t Touch My Shit” and “Shut the F*!k Up”, the quartet from Atlanta deserves credit for getting so much mileage out of a band that started as a joke among friends, while still managing to rep the riot grrrls as well as they do. The Coathangers perform with the Tough Shits, Slutever, and Mean Streets at The Barbary at 6 p.m.; tickets to the all-ages show are $10. —Danielle Wayda