Winter was in full swing that evening in Charlotte, but the chilly temperatures weren’t stopping the mass of fans waiting outside the city’s Underground music venue nice and early for the arrival of Scene Queen. The genre-flouting founder of Bimbocore herself was in town and ready to party, and much like her dedicated fans fighting the cold, the Queen was fighting a serious bout of food poisoning.
“Today was supposed to be the one time on tour I actually spend money” she tweeted earlier that day to her followers. “I normally save it and just eat what they feed us in the green room”. What was the occasion? The chance to have pounds and pounds of good ol’ Carolina barbecue. “I am so fucking PISSED rn lol” she concluded.
Of course, if you saw the way she leapt, screamed and danced around the stage that night, you probably wouldn’t believe she was feeling sick at all. Scene Queen’s Bimbo Beta Pi Tour has been filling rooms big and small with her signature brand of fiery, patriarchy-smashing alt-metal energy, and Charlotte was no exception.
While the Underground was intimate enough that the tour’s complete sorority house stage setup couldn’t even fit, the venue and its few hundred pledges in attendance that evening felt loud enough to shake an arena. Both Scene Queen and her fans - all dressed to impress with a fabulous array of hot pink and emo black outfits - were proving that Bimbocore (and its entire aesthetic) isn’t just some quick fad, but a movement that’s hopefully here to stay.
Los Angeles band Rivals set the mood for the evening with an exciting and surprisingly moving opening set. Frontwoman Kalie Wolfe’s impressive vocals effortlessly soared over the band’s dark pop-rock music; from hits like ‘Alkaline’ and ‘Dark Matter’ to new single ‘Nobody Loves Me’, the group delivered songs you could both cry and bang your head to.
Up next was 6arelyhuman, who switched things up with a look and sound that was pretty much the very definition of Scene. Along with their DJ Pixel Hood, the autotuned slayer of gender norms blasted the Underground with fast synth beats, and the dance floor quickly opened for the moshing to begin. The pit was easy to spot thanks to someone’s sparkly pink cowgirl hat bouncing around the top of it, and 6arelyhuman took note of the place’s upped energy. “Y’all are moving in there!”
Things immediately went into full-blown overdrive the second Scene Queen and her band, guitarist Boy Hero and drummer Jonathan Schwartz, rushed the stage to the response of hundreds upon hundreds of enthusiastic screams. Everyone was raring to go, screaming what seemed to be every word as the show went through a rosy catalog of bangers including “Pink Paper”, “Pink Hotel”, “Pink Rover” and other favorites.
Charlotte partied it up as Scene Queen commanded the crowd to open up the twerkle pit, showcasing her light-hearted yet electrifying stage presence despite confessing to everyone there that she wasn’t exactly 100% that night. But, food poisoning be damned, she did manage to order up tons of Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ’s famous cheese biscuits. Those things are seriously addicting. She was even willing to share some with a couple birthday girls in the audience that night! That’s considered real generosity down here.
The show was wild fun that held a special kind of positive energy. One younger kid up front, who sat on an impressively sturdy pair of shoulders the entire evening, looked like she was having the time of her life. Someone else handed out bracelets to all three acts and fellow fans, and of course, that pink cowgirl hat made it onstage and on Scene Queen’s head in time for her latest trap metalcore hoedown song, ‘MILF’. “Is North Carolina considered the South? I’m dumb.” she laughed. “Y’all are a little Yee Haw, right?”
Absolutely.
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12/9 – Anaheim, California
The rise of an artist like this - who can light up excited young audiences with empowering sex positive lyrics and have a unique image all their own - has been thrilling to see from afar. In person, it’s obvious from the fans that Scene Queen is here to stay, smashing every hater at a time and having a hell of a lot of fun doing it.
“Thank you guys for being so nice about me feeling faint during my set today.” she tweeted after the show had ended. “Food poisoning kicked my ass and I was dehydrated as fuck from it we shook ass nevertheless and I can’t thank y’all enough for being so fun”. Again, had she said nothing about it you’d never had known. It’s a night that the Charlotte crowd, many of them having experienced their first ever concert, wouldn’t forget.
