By Maria Lambert
s-k rocks it in brooklyn.
last night was the final stop of the sleater-kinney tour - us leg, and like any sensible rockers with good locational taste, s-k wrapped it up in the BK, at the “warsaw at the polish national home” venue. this spot is literally housed at the actual polish national home, and has recently been commissioned as the joint where indie rock represents in the outer boroughs of NYC.
i rolled in around 7PM (after getting stuck for half an hour coming over from work on the ever-hated G train), and got a space right up front, slightly stage right (carrie’s usual side). i met up with the usual crew of people that comes to s-k shows in new york, and waited for the first opening act to begin. about 8:30, the kills came on. they played a long, almost entirely undistinguished set. the sound was imbalanced (almost no vocals could be heard), and the entire act seemed to consist of the lead singer looking wily and sexy smoking a cigarette whilst the guitarist flicked the same four raunchy chords repeatedly. needless to say, i was not too into the band.
following the first act, quix*o*tic dropped in with about an hour of some surf-tinged goof rock that eventually melted down into some artsy mellow stuff. some of the first songs definitely sounded like the background music in scooby-doo — and i mean that in the best possible way. someone i was talking to said that the band reminded him of math teachers. i couldn’t disagree - they were really cute, and i definitely dug their music. it was engaging. although the part where the (scruffy, long-bearded) bassist sat behind the drum kit and stared off into space whilst the two women played and sung. i really liked one of their stripped, slightly bluesy songs that the cute drummer sang.
so, after several zywiec beers (complete with the “beer thermometer” that shows the zywiec logo when the beer is at “optimal drinking temperature” - genius!), s-k came on, opening up with “one beat.” they seemed much more high-energy and upbeat than they had at the previous week’s shows at irving plaza. corin, in particular, was really rocking out - dancing to almost every song, which i have never really seen her do before.
mid-set, carrie enticed the audience by letting us know that if we were especially good (read: if people actually danced), janet would come out for the encore in costume. the crowd, on cue, cheered wildly. a couple songs later, the new staple of the janet drum solo kicked in - but with a twist. carrie invited the audience to come up and dance on stage - a decision which might later have been met with a bit of regret, as about 30 people took her up on the offer, including one boy flailing wildly and another person who kept talking to carrie, who looked slightly uncomfortable at all the human presence on what is a rather small stage. much more jamming at this show than at irving plaza, which had more jamming than anything i had heard since pre-ahotbo. so, much jamming was done. right.
some really fiery stuff - carrie picking out some staccato notes with corin providing the underpinning roar, and janet continually escalating with some serious riffs. they kept ebbing and flowing with the jams like one long sonic tease - constantly building upon the previous pattern, never descending into musical masturbation.
for the encore, janet indeed came out in her wolfman costume, the headpiece of which gave her a big fuzzy mullet, a la the girl hair band vixen circa 1985. they rocked out on “my own private idaho” (carrie brownstein is the new fred schneider - who knew?), and, for their last song, FINALLY, to the edification of the hardcores in the crowd, played a song from the first album, “be yr mama.”
afterward, janet and corin hung out onstage for much longer than i had ever seen any of them be around. i said a couple words to corin, and talked to janet briefly about drumming styles, the gossip, and some other good stuff.
i will publish the setlist tomorrow - it’s in my back pocket of my other jeans. overall, though, the best show of the seven i have seen. truly amazing.
Filed under: Reviews