Scene Queen, Rin Rin @ Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide 2/12/2025
As the Good Things Festival army of talent arrives in Australia and begins to descend into the opening date in Melbourne, many will take refuge for a night or two in other parts of the country. The second artist to knock on Adelaide’s door is American Scene Queen.
Their debut arrival in town brings with them an array of colours, fashion, expression and freedom from their fans. In return, Scene Queen presents an event of power, humour, inclusiveness and quite a few ‘wow’ moments.
Mermaids, unicorns, glittering trousers and a wide-eyed enthusiasm to watch and sing with an artist that sees them, has the Adelaide crowd chattering with excitement.
Part of the magical world is Rin Rin, a tiny sized but roaring vocalist from Perth. Opener Chainsaw Girl may well come across as pop punk however when that drops lands, it is straight from hell. Huge riffs and deep bass intermingle with catchy melodies and bubble-gum moments of evil sweetness. Rin Rin can scream and can sing. They certainly rock both your pigtails and socks off.
Scene Queen appears on stage to a techno version of Barbie Girl playing over the tannoy. An artist whose debut release was called Bimbocore, the three-piece outfit entrance is an understated as it gets. Within seconds of opener BDSM, this room is hooked. The song, brimming with attitude, is brutally heavy and the Scene Queen themself, Hannah Collins, is a personality this venue cannot hold.
Whether it’s a pop style mixed with crushing breakdowns in Pink Push Up Bra or the manic could be sweet, could also kill ya vibes of Finger, the songs and show is extremely fun and entertaining.
The Pink Panther, has hands waving in the air and the predominately young crowd relate to the lyrical content of the evening which is very much about embracing yourself, your sexuality, supporting each other and enjoying yourself.
Collins interacts with their crowd in a personal and affable way all night and in all the shows I’ve ever done, I’ve never seen any command a Twerk-erl- pit. A pit where the crowd twerks. Yep. And they did it during Milf, a pop number that unloads with riffs as Collins salutes that time of a person’s life where, well, the title says it all.
Continuing the themes of involving everyone from all walks, Collins invites two fans on stage who don’t know each other and ‘inducts’ them into the Scene Queen world. Showing an awareness of pronouns, Collins is the future of music and how musicians should manage and interact with their growing fanbase.
Hot Singles In Your Area from most recent album of the same name starts soft and then boom! The eruption of noise over the empowering lyrics is dynamite. While Pink Hotel even had me singing I put the Ho in Hotel.
Songs about bosses annoying you in Whitney and the males in the bands circle jerking about instruments in Mutual Masturbation keep the room bubbling nicely in time for Ken & Barbie, a song not about love, it about them killing each other. This theatre is drawn from Cooper, Meat Loaf and Rocky Horror however this is all splashed with colour from today’s society and youth.
18+ lands with cheeky and affronting attitude however underneath the pop metal music, the content is extremely serious and unfortunately still incredibly relevant in the music world today, showing that while Scene Queen is about empowering their fans, they are not shy of calling out their peers. In the here and now though, the crowd’s interaction in singing the chorus creates a juxtaposition as its brilliantly delightful.
Scene Queen had mic issues, and it didn’t take anything away from the show. They had their tour manager on lights. Still took nothing away from the show. The reason is because the show, songs and performance was amazing. What I took away from the show was downloading the bands whole back catalogue.
Live Review By Iain McCallum