Pussy Riot performing its theatrical tour at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on March 10, 2017.

SAN FRANCISCO — From Mother Russia to the Regency Ballroom, Russian punk, protest and art band Pussy Riot brought its theatrical tour to town with a sold-out concert.

The concert, which included music (largely set to a saxophonist and DJ) and spoken word pieces, was performed completely in Russian, with English subtitles shown on a large screen, often accompanied by photos and videos from the group’s protests in Russia, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Some of the subtitles drew sizable cheers, like “Freedom doesn’t exist unless you fight for it everyday. And I’m riding in a car thats picking up speed.” Another said, “The power structure built on a totalitarian principle doesn’t know how to admit its mistakes.”

The group, which numbers upward of 20 to 30 at times, performed as a quartet in San Francisco.

Through the performance, the group told the story of what it’s three prosecuted members—Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina—went through after their arrest in 2012. It also focused on the proximity of politics and religion in their home country, and how politics in Russia are not for its people but for its rich and powerful.

“Jail is one thing, but being a prisoner of your own mind was something  worse,”Maria Alyokhina told RIFF after the show.

Despite the language barrier, the group successfully communicated the decree to not let an overbearing society or government make people  prisoners of it.

Follow photographer Gary Chancer at Twitter.com/windwolf98 and Instagram.com/Garych007.