SXSW Feature: Who Took The Bomp: Le Tigre On Tour dir. Kerthy Fix

By Lee Cahill

Who Took The Bomp: Le Tigre On Tour follows guess who? Le Tigre on tour for their last album This Island in 2004-2005. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Le Tigre is a feminist-electro-pop-punk band, spearheaded by riot grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna, behind-the-scenes maven Johanna Fateman, and crowd-favorite JD Samson. Footage of the tour was shot by Carmine Covelli (who I believe was their lighting guy). This footage was later edited and made into a feature-length film by Kerthy Fix this year. Spontaneous tour moments, in addition to interviews with the band members recorded a few years later in 2009, paint a picture of a band with an unwavering stance on femininity and sexual acceptance.  If you are a fan of the band, a feminist, a LGBT enthusiast, if you wear brightly colored clothing, or if you just want to dance like you’re 13, this film is a must see!

Though maybe not as profound as some other moments in the film, a super-silly parody of an 80’s workout video that the band recorded while bored in the gym of one of their hotels is definitely my favorite scene.

Whereas most rock-docs show the best, single performance of a song or edit a bunch of performances together to appear as a continuous one, the performances in this film jump from show to show to capture all the best moments without any reservations about continuity. Check out the clip of “Deceptacon” from the film below to see what I’m talking about.

This film will be released on DVD through Oscilloscope Laboratories on June 7^th 2011, but you New Yorkers can catch a screening of the film at the MoMA on April 4^th at 7pm (Q&A featuring Johanna Fateman & Kathleen Hanna following the screening).

Fun fact: Kathleen Hanna is married to Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys, and Oscilloscope was started by Adam Yauch aka MCA of the Beastie Boys. It’s alllll connected. As it turns out, Le Tigre was on tour with the Beastie Boys during the recording of this film, but the Boys are nowhere to be found in any of the footage. What’s up with that?