The show was sold out and the punk band played to a packed concert hall. Band member Maria Vladimirovna “Masha” Alyokhina – who recently fled Russia disguised as a food deliverer – said before her performance that on this tour she “wants to say her opinion about the situation in Ukraine as loudly as possible”.
You have also “sat enough time in prison and under house arrest”. This urge for freedom finally showed up on stage with deafening volume or highly political video recordings with a strong reference to Putin. The multimedia spectacle, composed down to the last detail, allowed not only brute expression but also quiet nuances. The opening act was performed by Susanna Gartmayer and dieb13, who devoted themselves to noisy-jazzy-rushing peripheral areas.
Poses for photographers and onlookers
After a performance in Germany, Alyokhina and band colleague Olga Borisova arrived in St. Johann with a significant delay at around 6.30 p.m. and were ready to pose right away. Only at first did they seem contrite and tired on their bus. The drive was obviously long. But when both were adequately adjusted from their point of view, they faced photographers and onlookers. Alyokhina and Borisova skilfully staged themselves on the trailer of their bus.
Her tour manager had already arrived a few minutes earlier, his car old and more than unspectacular. However, a Russian license plate indicated that this was the vanguard of the Pussy Riot entourage. The Ukrainian flag in the rear window indicated the context of the visit even more clearly.
Sound check in fast forward
Because of the late arrival, the band’s sound check had to be done in fast forward: Pussy Riot checked the sound, gave instructions and pointed out to the technically responsible persons the correct combination of siren sounds and light show. The voices of the stage actors sometimes sounded melodious, sometimes screamingly infernal. There were also hard beats and, subtly interspersed, saxophone sounds from the only male member, Anton Ponomarev.
Pussy Riot suddenly became known around the world ten years ago with a concert in a Moscow church against the ruler Vladimir Putin. Alyokhina was therefore sentenced to two years in a prison camp in 2012 with her bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. At the end of 2013 they were pardoned and released. However, Alyokhina was repeatedly targeted by the Russian law enforcement authorities, for example in connection with demonstrations for the imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny. Most recently she was under house arrest.
Source: Nachrichten
