I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 27, 2019] Sleater-Kinney

I saw Sleater-Kinney in New York City in 1999 and 2000.

Back in those days I didn’t try to get up close to the stage and I have one or two pictures of them from far away.

When S-K made their reunion album in 2015, I didn’t feel compelled to see the tour because I had seen them twice already.  I now regret it because it was at Union Transfer and that would have been an amazing place to see them.  Although looking at that setlist, aside from songs of that new album, I didn’t miss a whole lot that wasn’t played at my show, so my regret is now low.

There were some weird things going on with this tour before it even began.  People didn’t like the new record.  Then, amazing drummer Janet Weiss abruptly quit a few weeks before the tour started (I saw that people actually asked online about getting a refund (!)).  And my show had the weird detail of being listed at two venues.  Was it at the main room of the Fillmore?  Or was it in the tiny Foundry (as their site listed).  Now The Foundry would have been an insanely wonderful place to see them, and I wondered if the new album wasn’t selling or that without Janet, maybe they could only fill The Foundry.

But clearly that was a mistake because the Fillmore was well crowded (but not packed).  I have been really down on the Fillmore as of late because super crowded shows there really suck.  But I managed to get a good spot around nicer people and was close enough that I wasn’t in the halo of the bar, so it was all good.  And the sound in the Fillmore is outstanding, of course.

Soon after Janet quit the band she was in a terrible accident, one that did untold damage to her arms and legs.  I pledged to her GoFundMe and am happy to hear she is doing much better and slowly starting to play drums again.  But there’s no way she would have been playing with them anyhow.

But heck, she wasn’t their first drummer (she was actually their fourth), so it’s okay that she moved on.

For this tour she was replaced by Angie Boylan who did a great job in a potentially difficult position.  The live band was fleshed with Katie Harkin on guitars and keyboards and Toko Yasuda on keyboards and guitar (and melodica (!)).

But up front were the constants of Sleater-Kinney: Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker.  I was more in front of Carrie which was pretty cool.  She is the more dynamic performer, moving around, jumping, soloing, while Corin is more of the rock that keeps the wildness together.

The set design was interestingly minimal.  There were a few vertical lights out front and they flashed from time time.  The backdrop was simple enough with a lips design that went along with the artistic design of the album.

The new album is pretty controversial in the S-K canon.  I stayed away from it for a bit because I had heard so many negative things about it. But I realized if I was going to be hearing some of these songs (all of the songs, it turned out) I should give it a listen.  And my take on the record is that it’s a terrible Sleater-Kinney record but it’s a really good not-Sleater-Kinney album. If this had been like a side project, like maybe a Carrie, Corin & Annie project, I think people would rave about it.  The songs are great and the production is really solid.  It just doesn’t have any of the hallmarks of the band (and yes a band is allowed to evolve, for sure, and they have been evolving over the years) expect for the second half of the first song which totally rocks.

They started out with that song.  “The Center Won’t Hold” opened the show with stage lights off and just the vertical lights flashing.  It starts slowly with Carrie singing a verse and Corin responding with the chorus.  It was basically drums and an electronic percussion that Corin was playing.  And then the song exploded and it was 100% Sleater-Kinney.  Carrie windmilled her arms, the guitars rocked and their voices sounded great.

They followed that up with the album’s single “Hurry On Home.”  The song is slinky and kind of weird, but it translated nicely live.

Then they jumped back to the previous album for the fantastic single “Price Tag.”   It features Corin singing lead and I couldn’t wait for that.  When that song came out after ten years of hiatus it was like they had never left.

I was surprised by the fact that they played five songs from The Woods, their first “controversial” album (which I really like).  I love the guitar and harmony vocals on “Jumpers” and was psyched to hear it.  They also played the weirdly cool “What’s Mine Is Yours” with it’s stomping staccato rhythm and Corin’s great vocals.

When I saw S-K back in 2000, it was for the All Hands on the Bad One tour, so, of course, I was pretty excited to hear the title cut. The addition of the extra guitars and keys (as well as backing vocals) really allowed the songs to flesh out, too.

After a few songs Carrie said hi and talked to us a bit.  She told us that she was excited for fall and that when she was walking around Philly she saw a pumpkin carved with just a giant middle finger sticking up.  Ah, Philly.

I love a lot of early S-K songs, but one of my favorite has been “Get Up.”  I didn’t know if they’d play it and in fact, they hadn’t been.  So I like to think that just for me they busted this song out as tour debut.  I love the combination of Carrie’s sweeter vocals and Corin’s more stark singing.  Fantastic!  I also love thinking that I saw it almost exactly 20 years ago back in 1999.

I tend to forget about the One Beat album, and maybe they do too since they only played one song from it.  But as soon as they started “Light Rail Coyote” it all came flooding back how much I liked it.

I was also surprised they played another song from All Hands, especially since “Ironclad” is such a starkly different song from their newer stuff.  It sounded pretty different live, bigger and possibly more powerful.

Then I was pleasantly surprised when they started playing “The Fox” one of their weirder almost prog rock sounding songs that I love.  Land ho!

Carrie made a joke about kombucha and Corin said not to say anything.  But then she told us that they had gone to a place that served kombucha drink specials (she declined to name the place and when I looked it up I saw there were 13 places in Philly who served those!).  Anyhow, everyone but Carrie ordered one and then midway through the drink, the waiter came over to warn them that the kombucha was off–it hadn’t been refrigerated properly.  So Corin said if mid-set Carrie is the only one left, you’ll know why.

One of the most notably different things about the new album was how synthy it is and yet songs like “LOVE” and “Can I Go On” (the two songs that sound most like St. Vincent had a hand in the record) sounded a lot more like S-K in the live setting, while still keeping the interesting song styles from the record.

They proceeded to rock out “A New Wave” from No Cities to Love (with that great guitar work form Carrie and some fun hand motions when she wasn’t playing).  Carrie does some wonderfully big kicks and dance moves–she is totally into the performance.

Yet another surprise was in store for me when Corin Tucker put her guitar down (GASP!) and touring guitarist Katie Harkin came down from the back to fill in Corin’s spot.  Corin stood front and center promising something scary for Halloween and they played the new single “Animal” which I hadn’t heard yet, somehow.  I loved watching Carrie and Katie having fun playing guitar behind Corin who was having a blast jumping around.

Carrie asked to have the house lights up so she could look at all of us.  She commented that the lights were on them all night so we should have them for a bit.  She made a sensible plea to vote out *rump and said if you weren’t planning to do that to just ask anyone else in the room why they should.

After the crazily catchy new song “The Dog/The Body” which is fairly quiet, they did a complete whiplash move by jumping into the wild “Entertain.”  All night it was great watching Carrie and Corin interact with each other, and in the clip you can see Carrie walk over to Corin and lean on her briefly before the song takes off one more time.  I loved watching how much fun Carrie was having all night–she was often smiling at Katie or Corin and they all seemed to be having a blast.  “Entertain” was a such a great set ender.  While the backing singers filled in the Woah oh ohs,  Carrie got to play her guitar at the ground and then put it over her head as she stomped on the pedals and lights to have everything black out.

The band left briefly for a few minutes and then came back for their encore.  Actually, Carrie and Corin came back for the encore. Carrie played keyboards and Corin sang this powerful ballad.  The rest of the band came out and they launched into one of my favorite songs from No Cities to Love, the rocking “Bury Our Friends” with that wonderfully weird sounding opening riff.  I’d forgotten how good that song was.

But it was quickly followed by an absolute favorite song of mine. “Words and Guitar.”  This song is so simple (just words an guitar, kind of) and lyrically it is almost nonsensical but it captures the essence of SK so well.  Corin sings in her inimitably loud way while Carrie sings quietly at the same time.  It was only after the song was over that I realized that the band was only a three-piece on stage (words, drums and guitar).

One of the big things that is missed in the new album is the two singers singing at the same time–whether in harmony or opposite–their voices work together so well its a shame that most of the new songs are more solitary vocal.

This encore was really awesome for me because they followed “Words and Guitar” with the fantastic “Modern Girl.”  I typically like the rowdier SK songs more but there’s something so wonderful about his song.  The biggest surprise (even though it is on the record) was when Toko busted out a melodica–who would have ever guessed there’d be a meloidca at an S-K show (or Carrie playing keyboards) I guess.

They left again and I knew that they had to come back at least once more because they hadn’t played “Dig Me Out”  I and everyone knows they end with “Dig Me Out,” right?

They came back out again and played “Good Things” from No Cities. and then they started “Dig Me Out.”  I saw that Katie and Toko had bothe left so they were down to a thrr-pirce again for this fantastic song.  This song is so much fun.  The crowd went crazy, the band went crazy, Carrie danced all around and at one point lay on the stage and continued playing.

It was pure catharsis.

If anyone had misgivings about seeing this show because S-K sounds so different, well, S-K rocks as hard as anyone.  And they sounded absolutely amazing.

SETLIST

1. The Center Won’t Hold ⊗
2. Hurry On Home ⊗
3. Price Tag ⊄
4. The Future Is Here ⊗
5. Jumpers ♣
6. Reach Out ⊗
7. No Cities to Love ⊄
8. RUINS ⊗
9. What’s Mine Is Yours ♣
10. All Hands on the Bad One ∇
11. Get Up [tour debut] ℜ
12. Restless ⊗
13. Light Rail Coyote ß
14. Bad Dance ⊗
15. Ironclad ∇
16. The Fox ♣
17. LOVE ⊗
18. Can I Go On ⊗
19. A New Wave ⊄
20. Animal [single]
21. The Dog/The Body ⊗
22. Entertain ♣
    Encore:
23. Broken ⊗
24. Bury Our Friends ⊄
25. Words and Guitar ⇑
26. Modern Girl ♣

    Encore 2:

27. Good Things ©
28. Dig Me Out ⇑

⊗ The Center Won’t Hold (2019)
⊄ No Cities to Love (2015)
♣ The Woods (2005)
ß One Beat (2002)
∇ All Hands on the Bad One (2000)
ℜ The Hot Rock (1999)
⇑ Dig Me Out (1997)
© Call the Doctor (1996)