Bloc+ …Glasgow 12/5/26 

Banshee Labyrinth…Edinburgh 13/5/26

Being a kid in the UK in the 70’s meant it was near on impossible to catch seminal LA punk bands such as X or The Go-Go’s — and don’t ever think that seeing The Germs, The Runaways or Alice Bag was ever on the cards. It simply did not happen.

So imagine, all these years later, self-proclaimed snot punk rockers Kill My Coquette arriving from Los Angeles on a whirlwind week-long tour of the UK, culminating in two debut shows in Scotland.

Kill My Coquette export a brand of punk that can only ever truly emerge from LA. There is something distinct and immediately recognisable in the music, the words, the vibe — and when you know, you know, even if you can’t quite explain why. This is neither NYC East Coast grit nor UK grime. It is unmistakably LA — fluid, fuzzed and nuanced, carrying an almost transcendent quality, as though shaped by vitamin D overdose and an absence of rain. A product of their environment, carrying the DNA of every great band that ever came out of that city, yet cut through with something entirely their own. They took the inheritance and ran.

Glasgow and Edinburgh. Two cities. Two KO’s.

Grassroots venues like Bloc+ and Banshee Labyrinth are the perfect stages on which to witness the energy, the effervescence, the sheer otherness of Kill My Coquette. The enthusiasm is infectious, their belief in themselves and their songs absolute. You are drawn into the magnetic pull of something electrifying — songs landing with a solid, driving beat that feels both familiar and thrillingly new. These are tales of everyday struggle: private, public and globally recognisable.

Natalie is fearless. She permeates the room, invading the space, mingling with the audience and drawing them helplessly into her web. The songs hit considerably harder live than anything you’ll hear online, the combined force of rasping guitar, bass and drums building a hypnotic wall of sound that fully delivers on every expectation.

Bloc+ may not have been full, but the band gave everything regardless. Banshee Labyrinth, however, was a case apart — Edinburgh truly came to the party, and the band met them more than halfway. Natalie was in the crowd again, soon joined by Adam, guitar raised aloft, the moment swelling into something euphoric. It climaxed in a jubilant stage invasion, led in no small part by band members of Edinburgh’s own Möschmellow. A joyous, chaotic, perfect end to Kill My Coquette’s time in Scotland.

Songs like ‘The Metro’ and ‘The Wrong Crowd’ are absolute classics — veering from a punk-meets-No Doubt sunshine street swagger to a Rage Against the Machine grab-you-by-the-throat fury. By luck or by design, LA bands find their way to our shores more than we might expect. The world has grown smaller, and for that I am grateful. Kill My Coquette came, they played their hearts out, and they were loved. 

We are part of their journey now — and they will be back. 

Make sure you are there for the ride. You’ve already missed enough.

Words: Nick Tamer

Images: Chris Hogge