Get ready. Reunited Bikini Kill adds a second Olympia show, which goes on sale Friday

Bikini Kill, which launched the riot grrrl movement, is back after 22 years — and in March, the original feminist punks play again in Olympia, where it all began.

Their first Olympia show sold out immediately, but this week, the band added a second, set for March 14 at the Capitol Theater. Tickets go on sale Friday.

Both shows benefit the Interfaith Works shelter, which prioritizes helping the most vulnerable adults, particularly women and LGBTQ people.

“We have a huge housing crisis,” Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail, who lives in Olympia, told The Olympian. “I consider it to be an emergency. Interfaith Works is doing the kind of work that needs to be done.”

Both she and shelter director Meg Martin, a longtime fan of the band, see the benefits as a fit with Bikini Kill’s activism.

“There’s a whole world of people in the Bikini Kill orbit that might not be exposed to or thinking about housing and homelessness,” Martin told The Olympian. “This is an amazing opportunity to push this issue to the forefront.”

Bikini Kill has played shows in front of thousands of people, but the reunited band — founders Vail, Kathleen Hanna and Kathi Wilcox, plus Erica Dawn Lyle — are thrilled to be headlining the Capitol Theater, where they often performed in the ’90s.

“It’s a big deal,” Vail said. “We would always play the back stage. We did play the front stage but not headlining.”

It’s also a big deal that the band is back together. In 2015, Vail, the band’s drummer, told The Olympian that she didn’t think that would ever happen, but in November 2017, she teamed up with lead singer Hanna and bassist Wilcox to play one song at a party for the British feminist punk band The Raincoats.

“I didn’t believe it was going to happen until it happened,” Vail said. “It was super fun hanging out.”

So fun was it that the trio added Lyle on guitar, started practicing the old songs and booked 10 shows last spring in Los Angeles, New York and London.

Fans and critics alike rejoiced. “The return of Bikini Kill feels less like a blast from the past and more like a superhero’s intervention,” Evelyn McDonnell wrote in The New York Times. “Its songs address sexual violence, harassment and exclusion in ways that are both cathartic and emboldening.”

The success of those shows led to next year’s international tour, which kicks off here in Olympia. The tour will last much of the year — there’s one show booked as far out as November — but the reunion is still an experiment, Vail said, and there are no plans to record new tunes.

“We’re literally just taking it a little bit at a time,” she said. “It’s crazy, but I guess we’re doing it, so we’re going to do it for a while and see how it goes.”

Playing the songs from before the breakup “doesn’t feel like a reenactment,” she said. “It feels genuine.”

And the band’s powerful feminist message feels no less relevant now than it did when Bikini Kill called it quits in 1998.

Time has changed at least one thing, though.

“I just turned 50, and playing drums like you play in your 20s when you’re older is not an easy thing to go back to,” Vail said. “I play drums three or four days a week, but (doing a Bikini Kill show) is the difference between running a marathon and running around the lake. It takes so much energy to play that aggressively and that fast for that long.

“It’s like that for Kathleen, too,” she added. “When she’s singing, she doesn’t leave room for a breath. She’s going fully at it.”

Hanna does get an occasional break during shows, though. Vail sings several songs, and just as they did the first time around, the women trade off instruments, the point being that you don’t need to be an expert to play.

“It adds an element of chaos, which I like,” Vail said, “but it can also be nerve racking.”

Bikini Kill

• What: The legendary riot grrrl band, reunited after 22 years, kicks off its tour where it all began — Olympia. The March 13 concert sold out immediately, so the band has added a second show. Mecca Normal opens.
• When: 8 p.m. March 14, with doors opening at 7 p.m.
• Where: Capitol Theater, 206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia
• Tickets: $25. The public sale begins at 9 a.m. Friday. The fan presale is already going on, with the code sent out via the band’s mailing list, which can be joined at bikinikill.com.
• More information: 360-754-6670, olympiafilmsociety.org
• In Seattle: Tickets are available for a March 17 concert at the Paramount Theater in Seattle. They’re $39.50 at ticketmaster.com.
• Interfaith Works shelter: Both Olympia shows are benefits for the shelter, which prioritizes helping vulnerable adults without homes, particularly women and LGBTQ people. Donations of clothing, bedding and menstrual supplies will be accepted at the shows. Get more information and donate online at iwshelter.org, or call 360-357-7224.

The Brotherhood’s Anniversary Party

• What: Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail of Olympia also plays with Morgan and the Organ Donors and with the Real Distractions, both performing at the Brotherhood’s Anniversary Party. Also on the bill: C Average and Jaguar Paw.
• When: 8 p.m. Sunday (Dec. 15)
• Where: The Brotherhood Lounge, 119 Capitol Way N., Olympia
• Cover charge: Free
• More information: 360-352-4153, thebrotherhoodlounge.com