KAREN DIÓ + HANA LILI – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 12.9.26
Brazilian punk rocker Karen Dió celebrated an incredibly strong year back in 2024 when she released a trio of solid singles. First up was ‘Sick Ride’ which dropped on 25th April and certainly announced her arrival. The gauntlet was thrown down with the arrival of ‘Stupid’ on 12th July, which was followed by ‘3am’ on 26th September.
Her debut 6-tune ‘My World’ EP came out on 25th October that year and collected the three singles together along with a trio of new tunes: ‘My World’, ‘Poor Man’ and ‘So Funny’. Off of the back of this Karen then secured the support slot for band-on-the-up Wargasm, which included an appearance at the Concorde 2 on 7th November 2024. That night was Karen’s debut Brighton performance, and of course we were there to report on proceedings.
Last year Karen performed a trio of new Brighton concerts, these being a headline set on 13th February 2025 at The Hope & Ruin, 16th May 2025 at Volks as part of The Great Escape and supporting New Found Glory on 26th May 2025 at Chalk. Karen was then chosen as support to Limp Bizkit on their ‘Loserville’ tour in 2025. A trio of singles dropped last year as well, these being the covers single of ‘Casual’ (by Chappell Roan) and ‘I Wanna Be’ (by Pitty), ‘Cut Your Hair’ and ‘I Hope You Know’. This year opened with the release of ‘Bexy’ in March, and ‘Free Yourself’ in June, ahead of last month’s 6-tune ‘Fugaz’ EP.
Backed by Hopeless Records, Karen is determined to shine a light on Brazil’s punk rock community on a global scale. For her, representing her Latin roots isn’t a talking point, it’s a responsibility. Thus in support of the new ‘Fugaz’ EP Karen has headed out on a select 4 date UK jaunt. Tonight at the Green Door Store is the final night, which has been organised by two local promoters, these being Sugar-Free Records and Full Fat Promotions. The previous three dates were in Glasgow, Manchester and London.
Tonight’s power punk anthems begin at 8:31pm and run until 9:22pm. During this time the almost full house are rewarded with no less than 19 tunes. Karen is on vocal and guitar duties when required and she is accompanied by former UK Subs drummer Jamie Oliver (who is also on laptop duties) and Julian Gonzalez Kitzing on seriously meaty sounding guitar and occasional bass. Their intro tape begins…“Be present, have fun….” as the trio take to the stage. I immediately recognise Jamie Oliver (not the famed chef) and then realise that, to me, Karen bears a resemblance to a young Nigella Lawson in looks. Moving away from food, it then dawns on me that Karen is actually the second Brazilian musician I have seen live within less than a week, having previously enjoyed Flavia Couri of The Courettes at Daltons just 6 days ago.
Karen has gone for the Olivia Newton-John “Lets get physical” look in her red leotard and white top, and they launch into the first of all 6 tracks from her ‘Fugaz’ EP, this being ‘Euphoria’, and on its completion Karen bellows “Hello Brighton…let’s f*cking do this” and they dive into a second tune from the EP, ‘Free Yourself’. The sound quality this evening is good and the vocals are clear, plus the beats are punk as you would expect with a lineup featuring a former UK Sub. Karen seems to have boundless energy and a great pair of lungs. There’s a full on sound coming off the stage and if you had your eyes shut you wouldn’t guess that there are just three of them up there. They are a tight outfit who compliment each other.
The title tune from 2024’s ‘My World’ EP comes next and Karen is really getting the punters on board by shouting “Brighton” a number of times throughout the set, which is met by crowd cheers on every occasion. ‘Stupid’ from ‘My World’ EP comes next and is, for me, the best so far, on account of it heading into Ramones territory – more on them shortly. Karen then introduces her Chappell Roan cover, ‘Casual’, which bounced along nicely, just like the crowd. The slower head-bobbing 2026 single ‘Bexy’ is next and they segue right into ‘So Funny’ from ‘My World’ EP. After which Karen straps on her guitar for the first time and they offload the title track of the new ‘Fugaz’ EP. The guitar remains for the 2025 single ‘I Hope You Know’, which is followed by the slower starting ‘Poor Man’ from ‘My World’.
Karen ditches her guitar and informs us that the next selection is her take on fellow Brazilian artist Pitty’s tune, and it’s called ‘I Wanna Be’. Whilst Julian is switching from guitar to a bass, there’s a keys section which is referred to as “Strings Interlude” on their setlists. Jamie then sets about offloading some solid drumming, followed by the bass and they are into ‘Crawling’ from ‘Fugaz’. ‘Rat Race’ from the same EP follows. This is Karen’s most immediate tune, and to be honest, it’s quite an earworm, especially the chorus: “One, two, there, four, death on the dance floor; Five, six, seven, it’s a rat race, baby; One, two, there, four, death on the dance floor; Five, six, seven, it’s a rat race, baby.” There’s a brief “Radio Interlude” of various cutups next as Karen straps on her guitar again, and Julian switches from bass back to guitar. Their next tune is the oldest in the set, it dates from 2017 and is titled ‘Do It’ and has a Ramones feel to it and is the most popular song thus far judging by the audience feedback at the end.
Things really do turn full on Ramones style as the trio seriously blast through the unreleased circa 30 second ditty called ‘Buy My Merch’, which obviously gets the message across and for me, despite being Karen’s shortest tune, it’s the best one. After this Karen introduces the final cut from her new ‘Fugaz’ EP, this being ‘Choke’, which witnesses the most enthusiastic punter jumping to date. Jamie sets a drum roll intro and they whizz right into the UK82 styled ‘3am’ from ‘My World’, which sees Karen as her most urgent. This tune was a short number as well and came in at something like a mere 50 seconds. It’s another corker! Karen then announces the final number, ‘Sick Ride’ from ‘My World’, which has a rap style to it with many punters singing along. It has the bounce and feel of a few SNAYX tunes. Karen briefly came into the crowd for that up-close-and-personal experience. And that was it, bar their outro music of ‘Where’s Your Head At’ by Basement Jaxx to send us merrily on our way to the merch stall, bar, toilet or way home.
Karen Dió:
Karen Dió – vocals
Julian Gonzalez Kitzing – guitar
Jamie Oliver – drums
Karen Dió setlist:
“Intro”
‘Euphoria’ (from 2026 ‘Fugaz’ EP)
‘Free Yourself’ (from 2026 ‘Fugaz’ EP)
‘My World’ (from 2024 ‘My World’ EP)
‘Stupid’ (from 2024 ‘My World’ EP)
‘Cut Your Hair’ (a 2025 single)
‘Casual’ (Chappell Roan cover) (from 2025 ‘Casual’ / ‘I Wanna Be’ single)
‘Bexy’ (a 2026 single)
‘So Funny’ (from 2024 ‘My World’ EP)
‘Fugaz’ (from 2026 ‘Fugaz’ EP)
‘I Hope You Know’ (a 2025 single)
‘Poor Man’ (from 2024 ‘My World’ EP)
‘I Wanna Be’ (Pitty cover) (from 2025 ‘Casual’ / ‘I Wanna Be’ single)
“Strings Interlude”
‘Crawling’ (from 2026 ‘Fugaz’ EP)
‘Rat Race’ (from 2026 ‘Fugaz’ EP)
“Radio Interlude”
‘Do It’ (a 2017 single)
‘Buy My Merch’ (unreleased)
‘Choke’ (from 2026 ‘Fugaz’ EP)
‘3am’ (from 2024 ‘My World’ EP)
‘Sick Ride’ (from 2024 ‘My World’ EP)
(Outro Music – ‘Where’s Your Head At’ by Basement Jaxx)
Tour support comes from Wales’ answer to heyday Wendy James, namely Hana Lili, an act up until this evening I was blissfully unaware of. Lili released her debut EP ‘Flowers Die In The Summer’ on 29th October 2021 and on 6th and 7th June 2023, Lili supported the Cardiff leg of Coldplay’s ‘Music Of The Spheres World Tour’ at the Principality Stadium, (together with Scottish group Chvrches) a venue which I personally witnessed Coldplay perform at on Tuesday 11th July 2017, although I must confess that I preferred the support act Embrace.
This evening we are in Hana’s company for 31 minutes from 7:30pm to 8:01pm, during which time she rewards us with 8 mainly unreleased compositions. Accompanying vocalist/guitarist Hana on stage are a trio of lads; these being bassist Connor Sims, as well as two familiar faces from the Hastings music scene in the form of former members of Kid Kapichi, who are George McDonald on drums and Ben Beetham on guitar, who both left the band on 5th May 2025, with Ben having been a founder member of the band back in 2013.
As the quartet take to the stage the venue is already rather busy, but not quite yet at full capacity. They kick off with the unreleased ‘Drowning’, followed by Hana’s 2024 single titled ‘Iconic’. There’s, as I would describe, a pop-grunge sound going on here this evening and quite a number of punters are dancing from the off, which must be encouraging for the musicians. Ben offloads a killer guitar riff on the unreleased ‘Bleeding Me Dry’ which would more than happy keep fans of the likes of Green Day very happy. Hana’s vocals are melodic and the music has a heavy vibe atop.
Hana informs us that it’s her first time at the Green Door Store, and by my reckoning it’s her second time playing live in Brighton, with the first being at The Hope & Ruin on 16th May 2024 as part of The Great Escape new music festival. Sadly we didn’t catch that particular performance, although we did somehow actually manage to review no less than 57 live music sets that actual day, yes 57!
Hana introduces the next song as being a new one and it’s called ‘Know Better’. Hana is a confident mid-twenties lady with buckets of charm and quite honestly also has the tunes to boot. None of which ever outstay their welcome, her messages are got across successfully and succinctly. Throughout the performance, eyes are drawn to Hana as she is so animated and full of energy. The first of two cuts from her new 2026 self-titled EP is up next, this is called ‘Ur Girlfriend’s A Lawyer’, after which we receive another newbie. Hana explains that it was penned about being a woman and all of the societal pressures of literally just being a female, its title is ‘Little By Little’, and it initially has a slow start with just Hana’s vocals and Ben’s guitar, but then George’s drums kick in and the track explodes into action. It’s the most melodic tune of the set.
Nirvana fans would enjoy the penultimate offering, ‘Rotten’ which is unreleased. They signed off with ‘Sick Of Myself’ from 2026’s ‘Hana’ EP. Hana orchestrates a female only moshpit, but misses the opportunity in joining in herself, which I reckon would have topped off the performance rather nicely. Suffice to say that these 4 musicians are a very tight bunch, and I’m rather hoping that Hana is able to further recruit the lads for future performances, and if they do, I shall be expecting headline shows in her own right, as based on this half hour encounter, she really deserves it.
Hana Lili:
Hana Lili – vocals, guitar
George McDonald – drums
Connor Sims – bass
Ben Beetham – guitar
Hana Lili setlist:
‘Drowning’ (unreleased)
‘Iconic’ (a 2024 single)
‘Bleeding Me Dry’ (unreleased)
‘Know Better’ (unreleased)
‘Ur Girlfriend’s A Lawyer’ (from 2026 ‘Hana’ EP)
‘Little By Little’ (unreleased)
‘Rotten’ (unreleased)
‘Sick Of Myself’ (from 2026 ‘Hana’ EP)
