I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: March 18, 2024] Sleater-Kinney 

This was my fifth time seeing Sleater-Kinney.  I saw them twice back at the turn of the century and then two more times in the last few years.

I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to see them again, but I thought a show at TLA would be a great way to see them and when my wife said she wanted to come along too, I knew it would be super fun.

The band has a new album out and they played 9 of ten songs from it.  However, they played 24 songs in total so it’s not even a majority of tracks.   (Interestingly they barely played anything from the other records “from this century.”

The older songs definitely got the most love from the audience, but I think this new album is quite good and most of the new songs received appropriate accolades.

They opened with “Hell” and “Needlessly Wild” a chance for both Corin and then Carrie to sing lead.

The setlist was pretty varied from there, including a number of older songs that I hadn’t heard live before.   Like “Oh!” from One Beat, a super fun song with great harmonies from the rest of the band.

The band this time was similar to their 2019 band: Angie Boylan (drums), Katie Harkin (guitars/keyboards) and Toko Yasuda (keyboards). but Katie Harkin, who has played with them a lot was replaced by Teeny Lieberson.  Their backing vocals were terrific–something I never really thought about with S-K before, but their voices really fleshed out the overall sound.

I thought that No Cities to Love was a Great album, but the only song they played from it was “A New Wave.”  But man was it good.

It’s when they play the older songs, like “One More Hour” that I remember what it was about early Sleater-Kinney that I miss in the newer mode.  Carrie and Corin used to sing over each other, sometimes catchy, sometimes in almost contrasting sounds.  usually with Corin singing a higher soaring line and Carrie chanting a lower melody and the new songs don’t engage in that at all.  I do wonder why they’ve abandoned that.

But there is still that great energy that Corin and Carrie create when they both play a slinky twisting guitar riff like in “Hunt You Down.”

The biggest surprise was when they played a song from their debut album, “Slow Song.”  Even though I’m a fan of their old stuff, I don’t know the debut all that well.  It was surprisingly simple compared to their later songs.

I remember when “Can I Go On” first played from The Center Won’t Hold, it sounded so… different.  St. Vincent had produced it so there was oddball sound effects.  In retrospect it was part of the band’s evolution, but it was pretty jarring at the time.  It was, on the other hand, pretty cool to see Carrie playing those weird guitar sounds live.

The Hot Rick might be my favorite S-K album, so it was great to hear “Start Together.”  The biggest surpise tends to come from the synths,but again, it’s been a few years with this new line up and the synths mostly add to the sound (especially the low end).

Incidentally, between Black Belt Eagle Scout and Sleater-Kinney there was not a bass guitar on the stage that evening.

I think it’s interesting that of the older albums, the one they play the most from is The Woods–an album that was rather different from their earlier stuff.  So maybe it was part of their progression (but it took ten years to continue).  So it’s great to hear “Jumpers” with that very cool quieter middle section.   I’ve also always liked the really weird song “The Fox.”  There’s so much going on in it, so many different parts.  And it’s so much fun to sing along  to Corin shouting “Land ho!”

I hadn’t explored the new album all that much, but i did like what I’d heard.  Of the unfamiliar new songs, “Six Mistakes” really stood out with a great low end riff (very unusual for S-K) and then some weird slinky guitar lines added in.

I was pretty excited to hear “All Hands on the Bad One,” not realizing  that it’s the one song from that album that they played in 2019 as well.

Everyone was pretty excited to hear “Modern Girl.”  I had wondered why I didn’t remember it from the earlier shows and realized that it came out on The Woods, too.  It’s a nice spotlight for Carrie, and the surprise of hearing a melodica (which works perfectly) never gets old.

They ended the set with “Untidy Creature,” which might be my favorite song on the new album.  I love Corin’s delivery.

They left and came back with “four songs from different albums.”

I assumed it would be all old songs, but I was wrong.

First was “One Beat,” a song I didn’t really recognize (I guess I don’t know that album as well as I thought), but which I knew was an older song from the angular guitar (and the vocals).

There was a weird moment where Corin said that the song was all about peace.  And if you didn’t support peace you could get out.  It was strangely aggressive and seemed to be very oddly timed during an encore.  Plus who is against peace?

Weird.

“Say It Like You Mean It” (I can’t believe I didn’t realize they hadn’t played it yet) sounded great and the whole room sang along with the new single.

Then they played “Dig Me Out” and the place exploded.  It’s such a great song and the crowd desperately needed an old song at that moment I think.

They ended with “Entertain,” (again, it’s from The Woods), and as soon as the backing singers did the “Woah ho ho!” I remembered how much I loved this song.  It was a great main set ender back in 2019 and it worked just as well ad a night ender tonight as Carrie took off her guitar while the song was ending and stomped on her pedals to shut everything down.

As the sound rang out, my wife looked at me and said “this show was great!” and indeed it was.

 

	TLA 2024
	Hell §
	Needlessly Wild §
	Oh! ß
	The Center Won’t Hold ⊗ [2]
	Small Finds §
	A New Wave ⊄ [3]
	One More Hour⇑ [2]
	Hunt You Down §
	Slow Song ±
	Can I Go On ⊗ [3]
	Don’t Feel Right §
	Start Together ℜ [3]
	The Future Is Here ⊗ [2]
	Jumpers ♣ [3]
	Six Mistakes §
	Dress Yourself §
	All Hands on the Bad One ∇ [3]
	The Fox ♣ [3]
	Modern Girl ♣ [3]
	Untidy Creature §
	encore
	One Beat ß [2]
	Say It Like You Mean It §
	Dig Me Out ⇑ [3]
	Entertain ♣ [3]

 

The Mann Center 2021	Fillmore 2019
High in the Grass ⇔	The Center Won’t Hold ⊗
Hurry On Home ⊗ [2]	Hurry On Home ⊗
Price Tag ⊄ [2]	Price Tag ⊄
Down the Line ⇔	The Future Is Here ⊗
Jumpers ♣ [2]	Jumpers ♣
Shadow Town ⇔	Reach Out ⊗
What’s Mine Is Yours ♣ [2]	No Cities to Love ⊄
Can I Go On ⊗ [2]	RUINS ⊗
Path of Wellness ⇔	What’s Mine Is Yours ♣
A New Wave ⊄ [2]	All Hands on the Bad One ∇ [2]
Complex Female Characters ⇔	Get Up [tour debut] ℜ [2]
Surface Envy ⊄	Restless ⊗
Modern Girl ♣ [2]	Light Rail Coyote ß
Bring Mercy ⇔	Bad Dance ⊗
The Fox ♣ [2]	Ironclad ∇ [2]
Worry with You ⇔	The Fox ♣
One Beat ß	LOVE ⊗
Entertain ♣ [2]	Can I Go On ⊗
	A New Wave ⊄
	Animal [single]
	The Dog/The Body ⊗
	Entertain ♣
	encore
	Broken ⊗
	Bury Our Friends ⊄
	Words and Guitar ⇑ [2]
	Modern Girl ♣
	Encore 2
	Good Things ©
	Dig Me Out ⇑ [2]

 

 

Irving Plaza 2000	Irving Plaza 1999
The Ballad of a Ladyman ∇	Maraca ∇
Ironclad ∇	Get Up ℜ
Call the Doctor ©	Taste Test ©
All Hands on the Bad One ∇	One Song for You ℜ
Start Together ℜ [2]	Not What You Want ⇑
One More Hour ⇑	Tapping Ø
You’re No Rock n’ Roll Fun ∇	Wipers ()
The Professional ∇	Living in Exile ℜ
Words and Guitar ⇑	Hot Rock ℜ
Milkshake n’ Honey ∇	Anonymous ©
White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane cover)	Start Together ℜ
One Song for You ℜ	Hubcap ©
#1 Must Have ∇	The End of You ℜ
The End of You ℜ	How to Play Dead ±
The Drama You’ve Been Craving ⇑	Turn It On ⇑
Male Model ∇	encore
Stay Where You Are ©	Be Yr Mama ±
Youth Decay ∇	Heart Factory ⇑
encore	encore 2
Little Babies ⇑	Jenny ⇑
Turn It On ⇑
Dig Me Out ⇑

⇔  Path of Wellness (2021)
⊗ 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)
() unreleased
Ø Get Up EP (1999)
ℜ The Hot Rock (1999)
⇑ Dig Me Out (1997)
© Call the Doctor (1996)
± Sleater-Kinney (1995)