It feels inappropriate to do my normal Jokey McJokester shtick when talking about the collective known as Pussy Riot. Pussy Riot has been through some shit and they spare no details during what I wouldn’t call a concert, but rather, a multimedia performance art piece. All the horrible shit that happened after Putin arrested them. And the horrible shit that will probably happen again should he find them since, technically, some of the members of Pussy Riot are still on the run.
I honestly thought tonight would be an angry punk show. Sloppy Jane, angry punk person, was the opener; Pussy Riot, angry punk revolutionaries the headliner. But, um, it wasn’t. It felt more like a piece of history. And not a pretty piece of history like landing on the moon or that fake video of Bigfoot. Rather, one of the somber pieces of history that involves jailing people because they disagree with you. Yeah, we’ve been down this road before…
Like I said, the entire performance is members of the collective known as Pussy Riot detailing the lead up to their infamous arrest. Then detailing what it was like being in a Russian prison. Then shouting out other political prisoners, former and current, in the Russian system. All through intense as fuck music and video.
And subtitles. Great for people like me who can’t speak Russian (or any other languages) but wanted to know why the music was so fucking intense.
I didn’t understand Sloppy Jane at first. Again, I thought angry, fuck you punk was the name of the game, and Sloppy Jane, aka Haley Dahl + other people, are known to be angry, fuck you, and punk. But it was more like a performance art piece. It was like something you’d see in an art gallery minus the pretentiousness. And honestly, as you know I’m one to be, I was wanting like two or three more Haley’s on stage.
See, she’s going solo on this tour. Not just on stage, but everywhere, and I say that because she was also running her own merch booth. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was also her own driver, but that would be conjecture and not fact. But she’s got an energy that, given a few more of her, would be balls to the walls.
But after seeing Pussy Riot, a nonpretentious art gallery exhibition is much more appropriate than balls to the walls punk rock. Haley Dahl, aka Sloppy Jane, is a very appropriate opening act.
I know this is a break from the norm for Fuck Your Social Media, but I just feel so heavy after this. Not because I’m physically a fat ass, although it helps, but because Pussy Riot reminds you of all the shit in the world. There’s so much shit going on in the world – kids being bombed, Hitler-wannabes leading countries, justice slowly dying in a prison cell while fat cat billionaires watch us all die. And while we do have the power to change things… we’re not.
Pussy Riot went to prison in Russia. I get angry when my neighbour won’t turn his fucking music down but I keep it to myself and let it eat me up inside. Pussy Riot is going on tour donating merch money to the Ukrainian Children’s Hospital while educating people on the horror that is Putin’s Russia. I might go the store tomorrow, but the one with self checkout so I don’t have to talk to anybody, and then I’ll click on “no” when they ask if I want to donate to end world hunger because they have billions of dollars and I have a handful of nickels.
We have the power to change the world. A lot of us just choose not to, including me. I’m gonna go cry myself to sleep for being pathetic, but tomorrow, I’ll wake up with renewed vigour to continue my journey of lazy comfortableness while telling myself there’s absolutely nothing I can do to be the change I want to see in the world.
And don’t worry you fuckers – we’ll be back to our normal programming very soon.
