If queer punk finds its commercial feet in 2017, it will be largely thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of PWR BTTM. On their debut UK tour, Ben Hopkins and Liv Bruce, whose interest in drag culture and garage rock brought them together while students in New York, turn gender politics into a something-for-everyone parfait. On the one hand, inclusiveness is the show’s fulcrum, with the toilets designated gender-neutral for the night, and the room a “safe space”. The chattier Hopkins – with beard and sequinned jacket – tends to his flock of glitter-speckled fans, asking them to “be respectful of other people’s bodies” while dancing, and dedicating the power-rocking Silly to “anyone who’s ever felt invalidated” and Big Beautiful Day to victims of bullying.
On the other hand, they play up vigorously to the stereotype of the permanently roving gay male eye, with banter about “quality trade” and the hook-up site Grindr. Hopkins is enough of a romantic, though, to wonder in one plaintive song whether a certain Grindr date is “the one”. Yet it all coheres, if a bit shambolically. Taking turns on guitar and drums, he and Bruce, who’s all biceps and hair, construct calls to action while deconstructing punk to its ragged bones. But it’s not dour: skeins of humour run through the Vampire Weekend-ish Dairy Queen (“We can do our makeup in the parking lot … but right now I’m in the shower”) and the singalong anthem I Wanna Boi. If glitter, politics and sly wit count for anything, PWR BTTM are on the up.
- At Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 4 December; box office: 0113-275 2411. Hug and Pint, Glasgow, 5 December; box office: 0141-331 1901. Then touring.
