By Rick Slagter, Rock At Night Groningen, The Netherlands
Venue: Explore the North festival, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
With an intriguing mix of punk, electronica, theater, documentary footage and protest, the world-famous art collective Pussy Riot took the audience along the story of ‘Riot Days’. This is the memoir written by Maria Alyokhina, one of the core members, about her protest and imprisonment.
When Pussy Riot was founded in 2011, the group consisted of 11 women who performed underground provocative guerrilla punk rock performances in Russia. In 2012 Maria was, together with the members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, imprisoned for ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’ for their performance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Since then Pussy Riot has worldwide become synonymous with rebellion and freedom of expression.
‘Riot Days’ on stage is an impressive show, with trumpet solo’s and drum rhythms over electronic beats, choreography, spoken word, slam poetry, all in Russian. The translation was incorporated in the visuals. In 2019 Pussy Riot is on tour with this show, the show gets good reviews. Rock at Night caught the collective last weekend at the music, literature and art festival Explore the North in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.
PHOTO GALLERY
VIDEOS
Pussy Riot-1937
Snippet of Pussy Riot from Riot Days Fest
Interview with Pussy Riot
Spotify
Photographer (concerts, documentary), musician (rock, blues), writer (fiction), straight edger (sober in any sense), dwells underground (alt scene).
Living in the North of The Netherlands, the independent creative area of the country (hotspots are Groningen and Leeuwarden).
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