Who Took The Bomp? Le Tigre On Tour is not your average touring movie, but that’s because Le Tigre are not your average band. Using footage from the girls’ final tour in 2005, director Kerthy Fix’s film captures the many facets of a band that, to many, were so much more than that. One minute, they’re speaking whip-smart on feminism and sexual identity, the next, they’re making a fake workout video in a hotel gym that will have you dry-heaving with laughter. In between, the energetic performances featuring handmade costumes, robot choreo, and video collages show how important this band really is to their fans. This doc will have you ready to kick ass and take names. Kerthy spoke with us about why young women are one of the most disrespected audiences in North America, and why “Le Tigre’s work fundamentally respects the language and iconography of girls, queers and women.” 

Le Tigre played their last show in 2005. Why did you choose to make the doc now? 

It was because the band had the footage. Their lighting director Carmine Covelli had shot it on a year long World Tour they did in 2004-2005. I met Kathleen (Hanna, lead singer of Le Tigre and formerly Bikini Kill) through a mutual friend and she brought me a suitcase full of about 50 tapes. I scanned through them and we decided to make a DVD for fans. We didn’t realize at first that it would morph into a more substantial film that film festivals all over the world are screening.

What are some of your favourite moments from the piece?
I love the “My, my Metrocard” fake work-out video that the band did while bored in a hotel exercise room. It’s pretty hilarious. I think Kathleen does a great updating of Lucille Ball in that.

I also love when JD (Samson) talks about how she had a hard time knowing how to present herself at first and that being the object of everyone’s affection – trannies, straights, gays – came as a complete surprise.

Why do you think bands like Le Tigre still resonate so strongly with young women? 
Young women are one of the most disrespected audiences in America but also in the world at large. I think the whole Rebecca Black “Friday” broohaha is evidence of this deep disregard for the taste and interests of young girls. Obviously, young girls are not going to have the most sophisticated interests, yet we treat the interests of boys as somehow serious and worthy.

Why is Mortal Kombat not the most ridiculed stupidity in existence? Because it’s a “stupid” that can be exploited for military might. One that equates masculinity with guns, power and violence. 

When Le Tigre makes handmade video graphics, has their friends design their fun stage costumes and performs dance moves that a girl would do in her bedroom, young women see that the art and music is something accessible. Something they could do too.

Le Tigre’s work fundamentally respects the language and iconography of girls, queers and women. It reads in everything they sing about, every choreographed dance move, every dance beat.

Do you think any modern female musicians are carrying on in the feminist tradition of bands like Le Tigre and Bikini Kill?
I really enjoyed seeing Go Chic play at the Girls Rock Camp dayparty at SXSW this year. They are a band from Taiwan that made us all dance and sweat on a warm day. I’m not sure they are necessarily “feminist” but that’s because politics aren’t the first criteria I use to like music or art. They could be feminist, but I’m not sure they would call themselves that. They were certainly hilarious, making fun of non-Asian expectations of Asians in their songs.

I also really like the weirdo chic of Janelle Monae. She’s pretty brilliant and odd for the mainstream and I find that her gender presentation, whatever it is – I’m not sure, its just very strong, and her style – her mixing of Harlem Renaissance, Sun Ra outer space imagery and hip-hop, are complex and fun.

Do you have a favourite Le Tigre song? What is it and why?
I’m very fond of Nanny, Nanny Boo Boo, Sixteen and the sexiness of Well, Well, Well. But the classics are always fun on a mixtape — What’s your Take on Cassavetes, and Keep on Living really liven up a room.

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