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The Montreal collective’s high octane polished psych-pop made a big impression on a small room.
Pussy Riot Riot Days: Freedom Fighters On The Move
“We are not a rock band. We are a political protest, a feminist movement.”
Brad Simm
- Published on
Referring to Pussy Riot as a punk band only represents a sliver of their identity. In 2012, Pussy Riot rose to international prominence when they were charged for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for filming a protest video on the steps and the inside of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. With the location chosen because the church supported Vladimir Putin and his aggressions, Pussy Riot founder, Nadya Tolokonnikova and group member Maria (Masha) Alyokhina, cited by the Russian authorities as dissident activists, served just under two years in prison.
The group survived the ordeal and would continue to conduct pop-up protests railing against Putin’s imperialistic takeovers and his authoritarian assault on civil rights, feminism, and LGBTQ+ liberties. After several house arrests and short-term jail sentences, Alyokhina fled Russia in 2022, fearing she would be confined for a lengthy period in a penal colony.
Currently on tour in North America, Riot Days’s performance art showcases Alyokhina’s 2017 written memoirs, Riot Days — a document detailing the group’s public protests, arrests, court dramas, imprisonments and other bold activities confronting Putin’s regime.
After the band lands in New York, preparing for their tour, I ask Alyokhina if she’s worried that Trump’s terrorist watchdogs – the infamous border security organization ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement) – are on her tail due to her political profile.
“You mean like real dogs?” she says, half-jokingly.
Pussy Riot has a three-day stop in New York, basking in the big city before heading to Montreal, where the tour begins. Curious what her take on America is, I ask her exactly that.
“What do I like about America? I love America! It’s a country created as a free country,” she says. “I know that it sounds banal and naive and maybe like a slogan from a strange advertisement, but it’s what I learned when we were children and afterwards. American culture made the biggest impact on my life. Filmmakers, musicians, artists and my first impressions when I came here, it’s altogether something special.”
Her voice trails off. “But now I see something which I haven’t seen before at all with American people. I think a lot of people are frustrated, depressed, sad, and kind of feel themselves powerless.”
Despite its tremendous decline, which has been ongoing for years, it is interesting how Alyokhina still marvels that the United States is the land of the free, the land of creativity, and the land of opportunity – like many of us have as well. Knowing that she’s seen her own country go from bad to worse, as America now is, it’s clear that she sees all the signs that Trump is moving in the same desperate direction. That’s why Pussy Riot is bringing their story to our shores.
“I see this direction, where it’s going,” says Alyokhina. “It reminds me of the TV series, Handmaid’s Tale.” She then adds, laughing, “And I think the woman who made the costumes, she’s a real genius!”
When Russia invaded Ukraine and Alyokhina left her country, Alyokhina found refuge in Iceland, where she found citizenship and protection from Putin’s own watchdogs and treacherous pitbulls. While she doesn’t live in Iceland, she sings their praises and notes that Icelanders are very diplomatic with “zero army… it’s great.” At the same time, she is adamant that freedom doesn’t come without peril.
“I think people who really want and love democracy should understand that we all need to fight for that,” she says. “And it would probably not be a peaceful fight, because democracy wasn’t God’s gift. There were people who were fighting and sacrificing their life for us, the next generations, to have this possibility of choice, right? I mean, basically everything that we have was actually built on blood. If we talk about LGBTQ+ rights and the possibility to openly exist in the world, then there were people who died for that.”
Clearly, Pussy Riot exemplifies and embodies a fierce spirit. They are beyond a rock band.
“Yeah,” says Alyokhina matter-of-factly. “We are not a rock band. We are a political protest, a feminist movement.”
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