Heavens to Betsy reunite for first tour in three decades following secret show in Portland last night
Heavens to Betsy, the influential feminist punk band of Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney) and Tracy Sawyer, played their first live performance in over 30 years at a sold-out secret show in Portland last night. The duo have now confirmed a run of US tour dates for autumn, marking their first national touring activity since the 1990s.
The Portland show served as a warm-up for an 11-date run that begins in San Francisco on 17 October and concludes in Durham, North Carolina, on 22 November. Support for the Portland date comes from Team Dresch, who recently announced a comeback of their own, with further supports yet to be announced.
Tucker, who would go on to co-found Sleater-Kinney, and Sawyer originally met in middle school in Eugene, Oregon, bonding over music before forming Heavens to Betsy. Their first live appearance came at the International Pop Underground convention's Girl Night in 1992, a performance Tucker recalls with characteristic understatement. "I don't think we had any material written," she said. "But I was like, 'Yeah, we'll do that' with all the confidence in the world. Then we wrote two songs and played them at that convention, and it was a really big deal, because all of our musical heroes were in the audience that night: Fugazi, Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Calamity Jane."
She added: "We were terrified, but they were so supportive. All of them told us how much they loved the band that first night. It was like a Cinderella story."
The band's output during their initial run included three 7" releases – a 1992 split with Bratmobile, These Monsters Are Real and Direction – before releasing their sole full-length album, Calculated, in 1994 via Kill Rock Stars. Their music addressed rape culture, intersectional politics and body shaming, while also celebrating female friendship and queerness, themes that remain central to discussions around punk's political legacy.
Tickets for the newly announced dates go on general sale on Thursday 2 July at 10am local time, with further information available via the band's social channels. The reunion follows a period of renewed interest in the Olympia and Pacific Northwest punk scenes of the early 1990s, with numerous archival reissues and retrospective compilations bringing the era's underground acts back into focus.
Sign up to Best Fit's Substack for regular dispatches from the world of pop culture