Twerkle Pit, Twerkle Pit > Circle Pit: Scene Queen storms 02 Kentish Town

On Saturday, September 6th, at London’s O2 Kentish Town, I had the absolute privilege of being in the room where Scene Queen performed her biggest headline show to date, with huge thanks to The Noise Cartel.

Scene Queen is an artist who takes metal music and flips it, implementing pop, disco, and even country elements into her music, but most importantly, she has deemed this to be ‘Bimbocore’, which is commonly referred to as hyperfeminine metalcore. 

Unafraid to push boundaries within the music industry—something Scene Queen does repeatedly, her song lyrics align with standing up for minorities and empowering the often left voiceless. With songs like 18+, which aims to call out the predatory behaviour of grown adults in bands, and Mutual Masturbation, which discusses misogyny within the industry from peers within the song lyrics.

The show on Saturday started with Lake Malice opening, which I’ve seen a few times and had the privilege of interviewing earlier this year. Alice and Blake are a metal duo from Brighton, and every single time I see them, they have fun on stage, serving looks and vocals. Blake gets into the crowd and plays guitar whilst the crowd runs in a circle around him (the circle pit), which is always fun to witness.

The second opener was an artist called Girli, whom I’ve never seen live; however, I have been listening to her music for quite some time now. She’s a queer pop artist who writes music about being queer, mental health, and fucking the patriarchy. She was such a fun spirit and kept the crowd hyped up, showcasing her earrings (vibrators that actually vibrate) and dedicating one of her songs, “I Really Fucked It Up” to transphobes.

Finally, Scene Queen came on—someone I’ve been wanting to see for quite some time. I was standing off to the side, expecting to be there the whole night as I could see the stage perfectly (I’m short, okay?), but as soon as she said the words ‘Open the pit,’ I weaved through the crowd like a snake and jumped in. 

I am going to briefly discuss the crowd real quick, because never have I EVER been in a crowd that was so respectful and lovely. I was near multiple people who had just started talking to someone that very night, and they spent half the show together, forging friendships and enjoying themselves.

This is something Scene Queen herself asks of the crowd later in the show. She has a sorority for her fans called ‘Bimbo Beta Phi’ which means we all have to look out for one another, and serves as a purpose to make new friends; however, I was seeing the above happen before she even came out.

For this part, she mentioned how she has VIP meet-and-greets before the show, but she doesn’t like having things behind a paywall as it’s not accessible or affordable for everyone; however, the venue was just too big to do it any other way.

During the show, she brought three fans, handpicked from the crowd, up on stage, and had them ‘swear in’ to Bimbo Beta Phi, alongside the crowd, who also were sworn in. She repeated words to us which we repeated back, and then proceeded to tell us that it was incredibly easy to get us to join a cult, and we should go home and think about our actions.

Scene Queen’s performance itself was mesmerising. She commanded the stage like nobody’s business and made sure the crowd was enjoying themselves, too.

One of the artist’s main things she does at every show is start a ‘Twerkle Pit’, which is a lyric from one of her songs, ‘Pink G-String’, with the lyrics “Twerkle pit: twerk in the circle pit” which gets people in the crowd into a (somewhat) circle, just so they can twerk.

Unfortunately for this show, there were just too many people to make a circle big enough as everyone wanted to join; however, no matter where you were in the crowd, most people were doing the exact same thing, and it was incredibly fun.

Overall, Saturday’s show was more than just a line-up of great artists. It felt like a community – from Lake Malice’s chaotic energy, to Girli’s unapologetic spirit, all the way through to Scene Queen’s sparkly pink performance, the night was a celebration of music, identity, and connection. I left not only with sore feet and a hoarse voice, but also with the reminder of why live music matters so much: it brings people together, makes space for joy, and leaves you buzzing long after the last song ends.

This is definitely a show that will stay with me for some time.