[ATTENDED: March 18, 2024] Black Belt Eagle Scout
I was pretty excited to see that Black Belt Eagle Scout was going to open for Sleater-Kinney. I’ve wanted to see her /them for a while and this was a great opportunity to see them.
I had heard a few songs by them a couple of years back but I had also heard that the live show was terrific.
The band came out–a trio. There were two guitars and drums. Singing was Katherine Paul, a Swinomish/Iñupiaq singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Portland, Oregon. Paul blends the vibe of Pacific Northwest rock with elements of Coast Salish traditional music
Her music is grungey in its tone, but it is also pretty slow, with Paul’s voice soaring in wonderful and at times unexpectedly places. She is also an amazing guitar player, jamming out some killer solos as the songs (and the set) wrapped up.
I enjoyed the way “My Blood Runs Through this Land” got bigger and bigger, with her singing wordless lines (again, such a good voice) and cool lyrics like
I know you speak through me I
Feel it in the sound of water
Touching all the rocks I feel
No one can takе this moment away ’cause
My blood runs through this land I
Find it in the land and sеa
“Treeline” opened with Camas Logue playing big soft drum with mallets–yes it felt tribal, but not like a stereotype. Fancy Dance followed and it was faster and much shorter (barely 2 minutes) which came as a but of a surprise after the first two five minute songs.
What was really interesting to me about their set is that there was no bass player. It was like they took a page out of the Sleater-Kinney playbook: two guitars and no bass. (apparently there is typically a bass player, but they were not missed in this set). The second guitarist Claire Puckett mostly played chords, but also played lead lines and even soloed a bit with Katherine at the end.
The set seems to have moved through the band’s output, with only one song from the previous album. And then three songs from the debut, which the crowd seemed to really like.
She dedicated “Indians Never Die” to the Lenape Indians of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It had a simple but super catchy chord progression and they jammed the heck out of it at the end.
Sam, A Dream was my favorite song of the set. After the song moves slowly along, it picks up in the middle and Paul plays a very cool hammered on riff that isn’t complicated but sounds great. I love the way the band played around that riff and then returned to it at the end.
They ended with the fantastic “Soft Stud” and the recurring line “I know you’re taken/need you want you.” Like many of her songs, the basics of the song are simple, but the way the song gets bigger and adds new elements (like the simple but catchy guitar riff that comes in halfway through) is really exciting, with Paul absolutely rocking out the guitar solo at the end of the show.
It was a great set.
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My Blood Runs Through This Land ≅
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Treeline ≅
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Fancy Dance ≅
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My Heart Dreams ∇
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Indians Never Die Ô
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Sam, a Dream Ô
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Loss & Relax %
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Soft Stud Ô
≅ The Land, the Water, the Sky (2023)
% 2019 single
∇ At the Party With My Brown Friends (2019)
Ô Mother of My Children (2017)
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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 Just Read About That... 