There are two kinds of Twin Cities gigs that just can’t be beat: The ones where I’m surrounded by other trans people and can let my cis-bracing guard down, and the ones where I can channel all my pent-up energy into going totally apeshit.
The organizers of Doll Brawl are here to meet both those needs at once. Some things you find at the running Seward Cafe music/activism showcase: impassioned words of solidarity, Hadron-Collider-tight moshing, mutual-aid tabling, and more bare transsexual tits than at any other gig in town.
“Titties of all kinds were out in a way I never see at shows,” says co-organizer E. Regardless with a grin of the most recent Doll Brawl, in April. “It just felt magical that people felt that safe and that free and empowered in the space to do that.”
The brainchild of three local (or formerly local) organizers—photographer Piggie Lynn, the aforementioned Regardless of darkwave group E.T., and Nina Medvedeva of hardcore band S.L.O.G.—Doll Brawl is billed as “a night of transsexual glamour and rage,” a show dedicated explicitly to trans hardcore fans.
The organizers noticed a relative lack of trans-centered concerts in the Twin Cities live music scene, and set about looking to fill that void. After seeing many of the same queer and trans people at hardcore gigs regularly, Lynn thought, “If there’s this many of us and it’s this popular, why not just say it?”
The three already shared connections in the south Minneapolis punk scene. Medvedeva was just starting the all-trans band S.L.O.G. and wanted to channel the “punk-to-weird anarchist pipeline” she noticed in her time in Washington, D.C.; eventually, she found herself wanting to play with Regardless’s former punk group Prison Ruin. Regardless had over 20 years of experience booking shows and worked with Lynn at the recently reopened, cooperatively owned Seward Cafe.
The intent was to always have a trans majority of organizers, audience members, and performers. In booking, Regardless followed their standard modus operandi: “Is the majority of folks the people who tend to hold power in the rest of the world or not?” They mention that booking BIPOC folks as well as trans people is a priority for them. “For fuck’s sake,” Regardless says, “it’s not that hard to do the work to try to find queer and trans folks to book, especially Black and brown folks.”
Also in true DIY punk fashion, Doll Brawl set out to raise funds for mutual aid for the immediate community. “[It felt like] a natural extension of the stuff we were already involved in,” Lynn says. She has worked with Southside Food Share and Autonomous Yurt Union, two organizations that provide food and shelter to houseless individuals in Minneapolis, and has put on benefit shows for these causes before.
“Both of those groups have a really straightforward praxis to them,” she adds. “They’re about direct aid. Neither of them are nonprofits—no money is siphoned off elsewhere. All the dedication goes into helping our houseless neighbors.”
Since Seward Cafe wouldn’t take a venue cut, they were able to make sure that money would go to the people who need it most. At the first Doll Brawl, this past February, Medvedeva and Lynn report that attendance that evening was close to 300—300 people! In Seward Cafe!—and that donations crested around $4,600, all going to Autonomous Yurt Union.
The overwhelming turnout was, in part, a response to Camp Nenookaasi burning down earlier that day, with all the funds from the show going toward helping that East Phillips encampment rebuild. “A lot of people who attended came directly from helping relocate the residents of Nenookaasi,” Lynn says, “helping them get temporary shelters and organizing immediate build days to repair the yurts.”
I was able to make it to the second Doll Brawl in April, which directed funds to Black Mesa Solidarity Network’s efforts toward helping Dinah elders resist forced relocation. From the dance-punk of BlueDriver to the no-wave Milwaukee group Pay Dirt to the genre-hopping Anita Velveeta—whose presence as headliner was enough to illustrate just how far the local trans music scene has come in recent years—each act added to the night’s vibrancy while always prioritizing the warmth that the space aimed to foster. It felt like a celebration of trans life, and I’ve rarely stepped into rooms so full of a vivacity and joy directly tied to transness and the community that comes with it.
When I mentioned the “warmth” of the room, I meant it literally too. The sheer number of people in Seward Cafe and the lack of central air made the room a sweatbox. And though half the crowd ended up tits-out by Anita Velveeta’s set, that only did so much against the billowing body heat of the pit. I got more trans woman sweat on my body that night in April than I’ve ever had at once, and only a fraction of it was my own.
If the organizers have their way, though, it shouldn’t stop there.
“One of the things I really wanna see more of is people fucking,” Medvedeva says. “I heard of three people hooking up at the first Doll Brawl, and that’s just not sufficient.”
“You’re getting sucked and fucked at the Doll Brawl, if you want it,” Lynn adds. “Bring back cruising.”
There’s another aspiration that the organizers share, one near and dear to my own unhinged pit energy.
“I was really hoping we would see a lot of dolls doing a goofy little two-step and windmills,” Lynn says. “Getting to see a room full of trans people getting to shine and not care, not feel like they’re stuck in the back, not feeling like they have to avoid a pit of macho violence. Doll Brawl is a safe place to go fucking hard.”
The latest Doll Brawl will only be the third, and it comes after a six-month gap between shows—the longest hiatus to date. All three organizers reiterate that what they’re looking for isn’t just attendance, but active participation from the Twin Cities trans community to help keep the Doll Brawls going and growing. “I’m hoping this becomes more than three people making it,” Medvedeva says, “and expands into something that’s more sustainable over time.”
That seems like a real possibility. Whether it’s Instagram posts or Discord meetup plans about the shows, posts fishing for hookups or new friends at the gig, or even just seeing out-of-state friends making plans to visit, the Doll Brawl has built up a reputation that far surpasses any recent trans music event.
“I hope that it becomes a regular thing, and that it inspires people to do their own version of it and start their own bands,” Regardless says. “You don’t have to wait for a Doll Brawl to happen. Anybody can make one happen or ask for resources. That’s the spirit of punk. Even if Doll Brawl stops happening, I hope some spirit of it continues out in the universe.”
Doll Brawl
With: Chemsexx, (X:)1ZTYR, Slut Intent, S.L.O.G., and a mystery guest; DJ sets by Sci Fi, Miss flo, and Eggplant
Where: Seward Cafe, 2129 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis
When: 6 p.m. Sat., Oct. 19
Tickets: $5-$20 (suggested donation to Southside Food Share); more info here
