The three members of Le Tigre are all wearing co-ordinated tracksuits – Kathleen in red, Johanna Fateman in blue and JD Sampson in yellow. On the rolling Hot Topic they leave the music to samplers and drum machines, and just enjoy themselves dancing (moves choreographed by JD - founder member of Dykes Can Dance, a group promoting lesbian nightclubs). Their Supremes-esque hand gestures show that girl-punk can be refined as well as getting the message across – taking the best of the old style with the spirit of the new.

The The Empty combines furious drum loops with spiky guitars and vocals that couldn’t be more pissed off if they tried. Each of the girls have their turn at venting their spleen – in particular Keep On Livin’ is about JD’s high-school-outing as a lesbian.

Prior to En Guard, Kathleen takes a minute to urge every man in the audience to “raise awareness” with their fathers, friends, brothers and uncles about women being attacked on the street. And that’s only one of the issues that Le Tigre are subconsciously drilling into us every time we hum their tunes. Depression (Much Finer), dissatisfaction with friends and work (TGIF), former New York Mayor Rudolf Guliani’s radical policies (MyMy Metrocard), and Dyke March 2001 which speaks for itself, really.

Each song has its own video projected in the background. These range from dancers in robot costumes, to an amateur project made with the help of New York’s Queer Youth Organisation, to “a feminist karaoke” oversized lyric-sheet for FYR (“Fifty Years of Ridicule”).

For an encore the girls play Deceptacon, the opening track off their debut album, and certainly their most accessible song. A couple of girls try to get up on the stage. Ignoring the security guards’ pleas for order, Kathleen drags them up, and more follow. Soon the stage is filled with jumping girls, boys, lesbians, gays, straights – all dancing their hearts out sometimes a little too enthusiastically (at one point knocking over drum machines).

No-one here wants the set to end. But we all leave having enjoyed ourselves immensely. Who knows how many of the stage invaders will be inspired to make music for themselves? ‘This is your time – this is your life.’

Le Links:
http://busygrrrl.homestead.com/letigre.html
http://student.bard.edu/~ba935/front.html#