LIVE IN THE PIT: Karen Dió and Hana Lili

It’s a balmy day in London, a welcome change from the sudden downpours recently experienced. Obviously, this is due to weather doing its normal thing - to the more delusional and whimsical of us though, we’d like to think the sun showed up to welcome KAREN DIÓ fans as they crowded early outside The 100 Club. If you were to question who beamed the brightest that night, Dió wins out over the sun without question, though her fans came a close second as they rushed toward the barely-opened venue doors.

Inside The 100 Club, it quickly warms up with the gathering crowds and the rapid-fire chatter from excitable gig-goers, cheers ringing through prematurely as the interim music fades and the techs test the lighting. But soon those cheers ring loud and true as Welsh singer-songwriter HANA LILI takes to the stage alongside her fellow bandmates, a small smile on her face that grows with each minute the fans sing her words back to her during Iconic. It’s not long before Lili has found her groove with Bleeding Me Dry, swapping from wielding a guitar to sole mic work and enthusiastically twirling and two-stepping across the stage. 

Pausing to thank everyone for coming out early and hyping up the crowd for headliner KAREN DIÓ, Lili seems to catch a second wind and goes even harder for Girlfriend and Little By Little, the energy of the room becoming tangible as she comes to the end of her set. With one last song to leave her mark, she calls out for a “girls only pit” - with the proclamation that everyone can join the pit regardless of gender for the first half - and closes out with Sick Of Myself as women joyfully mosh around and other attendees create a human shield to give them their time with a delighted Lili.

It feels like no time has passed before the lights flare up and applause fills the space as guitarist Julian Gonzalez Kitzing and drummer Jamie Lee Oliver (no, not the chef) bound onto the stage with a fervent energy that already feels infectious but goes full epidemic when singer and guitarist Karen Dió cooly skips onto the stage in sunglasses and the vivid red jacket she sports on the cover of her latest EP Fugaze. Launching straight into the celebration of the new EP, Dió churns out Euphoria and Free Yourself to appreciative cheers, before leading a singalong to her classic punk rock track My World. Kitzing jumps as high as his guitar cable will allow him while Oliver attacks the drumkit with a focus that only breaks between songs to yell with the increasing crowd. 

Dió stops to look across the rammed venue and profusely thank everyone for coming out tonight, her gratitude genuine and heartfelt - it wasn’t so long ago that Dió took a leap of faith and left Brazil for the UK to follow the rising punk and riot grrrl movements. Nights like these have cemented her decision to build her dreams as a new-wave punk singer seeing so many fans yell back the lyrics to fast-paced Cut Your Hair and Casual, the EP and tour title track Fugaze receiving a deafening roar of approval and a widening mosh pit. The jacket has been ditched by this point and it’s no surprise given the speed at which Dió whirls across the stage, opting for high kicks, 360 spins, intense full-body headbangs, a full impressive cartwheel, and two-stepping to crowd-favourites I Hope You Know and Rat Race, briefly crawling on the stage for the aptly named Crawling before she’s back on her feet for more jumping about.

A short interlude of radio feedback, Brazilian newsreaders and catchy punk-rock tracks like BLUR’s Song 2 give the trio a chance to hydrate and catch their breath, before they go all in again on their performance, Dió’s voice still holding steady in spite of the gymnastics as she delivers the incredibly entertaining Buy My Merch whilst gesturing pointedly at the merch table, the less than 15-seconds song getting the whole crowd bouncing to the ruthlessly hard and fast tune. With a final chance to speak to the crowd and thank them again, KAREN DIÓ gets a whirlwind circle pit running for Choke and 3AM, but it’s final closer Sick Ride that gets the entire room moving in a frenzy, fans screaming back “sick ride” so loudly it almost drowns Dió’s voice out, but certainly doesn’t dampen her vivacious spirit. 

Words and photos: Julia Stark