Live Review: Scene Queen - Stylus, Leeds 03/10/2023
Pretty is the new punk and pink is the new black, and bimbocore is in fashion as American trailblazer Scene Queen takes on the UK on her biggest British tour so far. Originally booked for Leeds’ home of punk rock Key Club, the Yorkshire chapter of Bimbo Beta Pi caused a venue upgrade and still continued to sell the room out. This is the true power of pink.
Warming up the crowd first of all is Yorkshire’s own loud and proud, hard as nails artist Delilah Bon. A perfect fit as herself and Scene Queen share a musical passion for singing about being women, loving women, and doing anything for the sake of empowerment of women. Both rising through the ranks respectively thanks to their popularity on the social media app TikTok, Bon found herself right at home among Scene Queen fans and her fellow Yorkshire residents.
Giving the crowd a spooky show to remember, with her heart-wrenching emotional vocals and her rhythmic routines alongside her back-up dancers, she played her part in making this a night to remember for every single person in that crowd. Commanding from start to finish, including a remix of Eminem track ‘Godzilla’, there is no end in sight for Bon and her self-made pro-LGBTQ pro-feminist style. This is the future of alternative music, at least within the confines of the United Kingdom, and the heavens and hell shall open up for the steady rise of Delilah Bon.
A change of pace following Bon’s unforgiving performance, the crowd welcomed some softer tunes in the style of pop-punk act In Her Own Words.Something gentler for the mid-section of the night; a sound easily digestible by everyone in the room and one that very few will pick issues with as it’s a universal sound of American-flavoured pop-punk. One that made many tracks flow from one to the next to the next after that, as the sounds were greatly similar and the pace of the show never missed a beat. There may have been a murmur or two, subtly asking why a “generic” pop-punk act are opening for a heavy music headliner such as Scene Queen - the best answer is, because they were still talented crowd-pleasers and helped get feet off the ground and arms in the air like the owners had no care. The person who cannot feel a feeling or scream a scream during some careless inoffensive pop-punk is not a person at all, but a shell of such.
With the crowd more than ready for the main event, bodies filling the venue from wall to wall, stage to back, it was time to pledge allegiance to the queen. The bimbo of the hour: America’s salty sweetheart Scene Queen.
Still new to headline touring across the pond from her native of the United States, Scene Queen left a sugary taste in everyone’s mouths as the underlying feeling of the entire set was gratitude. She was happy, bubbly, smiling from ear to silver-encrusted ear, and she left her fans in such similar states also.Opening the show with a triad of older tracks - ‘Pink Whitney’, ‘Pink Paper’ and one of her first ever tracks ‘Pink Bubblegum’ - she wastes no time bringing her true authentic self to the world. This is something Scene Queen has always excelled in, and has been what brought her the beginnings of her internet fame as she never fit the stereotype of a female punk rock vocalist. Blonde hair, bright make-up, candyfloss pink dresses and skirts and heels; she broke the barrier of expectations and left a mess of lace and feathers in the debris.
She continues on to play arguably her two most memorable singles, ‘Pink Hotel’ and ‘18+’. Both being anthems of two different stories - the former being a fun conceptual track surrounding sexual empowerment and queer awakenings, and the latter being a callout against the rise of predators preying on underage fans in the music industry - these two tracks alone are what attracted the majority of her fanbase to the tour. Both being very popular songs within her own social media spaces and becoming viral due to their lyrics content and their easy-to-chant nature, Scene Queen has proven to be the leader of the TikTok generation as without the platform, she would never find herself on that stage with that strong of a following standing before her.
She even debuted a new unreleased tune, a fun-loving fusion of country rock and her very own bimbocore metal sound titled ‘MILF’ - standing for the ever-so-honest phrase, ‘Man I Love Fucking’. Galloping around the stage in her pink cowgirl gear, complete with cowgirl boots and a matching hat she adopted for the two-stepping number, the audience was loving the new tease for future music. Country is a very divisive sound, in the US and the UK, and to take a genre that may not be as loved as it once was - if ever by the younger generations of the world - and put a new youthful spin on it, it’s always proven to be an industry success. It launched the likes of Lil Nas X’s career and there’s no doubt it will be just as strong and successful with Scene Queen. Ride that new tune into the sunset and don’t forget the “yee-haw”!
Winding the night down with her duet ‘Barbie & Ken’, with In Her Own Words’ frontman Joey Fleming filling in for Set It Off star Cody Carson’s half of the vocals, along with her ode to wolf-whistling ‘Pink Rover’ and her dedication to exploring one’s sexuality ‘Pink Panther’, there were no times in that hour-long set that things got boring, tiring, uninteresting. With hit after hit, giggle after giggle, twerk after twerk, it goes to show that what may have been played off early on as a TikTok fad or a mockery of the metal industry can indeed be the next big thing if it’s allowed to become so.
Scene Queen could have been pushed down and brushed aside so easily if it wasn’t for her steadily growing sorority of brothers, sisters, siblings and everyone in-between. There is nothing but love and support from one party to the other, and there are no expectations too harsh or any criticisms made too negatively. Everyone who wanted a good night was granted such, and it’s all thanks to an angry little blonde woman who just loves singing about sex, female empowerment, and even more sex.
Welcome to Bimbo Beta Pi. Once a sister, always a sister.
Words by Jo Cosgrove
Photography by Renée Bennett
