Getting swept up by the Pink Panther hype on Tiktok last year, I have been waiting to have the opportunity to see Scene Queen live. I missed Slam Dunk, but I was lucky enough to attend the Bimbos, Beans and Toast tour at Stylus, in Leeds on 3rd October.
As a lover of pink, I was excited to see all the girlies in their prettiest pink outfits, excitedly making their way to the stage. A wholesome sight, that for some reason I’ve not seen for a long time! It wasn’t just the ladies dressed up; the lads had put on their best for the occasion.
Delilah Bon was quick to take the stage, accompanied with two other ladies. A nice mix of fun and angry songs, all with a sound somewhere between grunge and punk, with a touch of hip hop. The two girls along with her provided stage presence in dancing and bass/vocals, and the three collectively stood up for trans rights during War on Women. Having never heard of her before this night, I left a fan – especially due to songs such as I Wish a Bitch Would and Dead Men Don’t Rape. She was well-compared, by my friend, to a grown-up Bratz Rock Angel.
In Her Own Words followed her, a four-piece pop punk band from California. They gave a heartfelt, and fun, set which I felt was taken away from poor mixing on the sound-system. Although the songs sounded good, the vocals sounded disjointed, and on listening to a recording did not do their justice. I’m putting it down to technical difficulties. As mentioned before, the songs were heartfelt, I especially liked Serotonin.
Scene Queen’s set started with a recording of Aqua’s Barbie Girl, before she danced onto stage and started her set with Pink Whitney. Full of energy, Scene Queen was darting around the stage and constantly throwing herself onto her knees with provocative dance moves to match her lyrics. It was amazing to see! She laughed with the crowd, having a meet & greet beforehand where she enrolled fans into Bimbo Beta Pi (BBπ), and later enrolling all of us – while certain members were lucky enough to be invited onto stage to receive a necklace as, in her words, she has a heart “as big as her boobs”. The stage itself was decorated with a pink microphone, a ball pool and a pink Parthenon-style decoration. The set contained many jokes, such as Scene Queen ‘edging’ music, by having Jonathon on drums and Dan on guitar prolonged the song’s breakdown and finishing the set (before the encore) by repeating “this is definitely our last song, we’re definitely not coming back with more. This is the last song” and then coming back with “oh my god, we didn’t expect you to chant us back on.”
Joey Fleming of In Her Own Words joined her on stage for Barbie and Ken, and my jaw dropped as the crowd cried ‘All Time Low’ during 18+. She played her newest songs, Push up Bra and MILF, and older songs such as Pink Hotel and Pink Rover. I loved her gratitude towards Delilah Bon, for stepping up last minute on Scene Queen’s last tour, and made a point that Delilah was her first choice for this tour, as well as her gratitude for In Her Own Words for coming along with her after bands pull away due to 18+.
An incredible night out, and an experience I’d love to have again. If you have the chance to see any of these bands, go along!