By Chris DeLisle
Interesting show at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit. This is my 3rd show and, musically, I don’t think Sleater-Kinney’s ever been better. Their interplay continually amazes. And when they kick up the volume, there’s not a band in the world I’d rather listen to. However, the crowd was a bit on the lacklustre side. The only problem I had with the show is that I couldn’t hear either Corin’s or Carrie’s vocals. In fact, the only singer I could hear very well was Janet. My friend told me Janet even told the mixer to turn her vocals down a bit. Also, Corin might have been a little on the sick side ~ that might have had something to do with it.
Highlights: opening with “Oxygen” and “Oh!” into “The Drama You’ve Been Craving”…the punk rock version of “You’re No Rock & Roll Fun”…the new song with Carrie starting it off with the tambourine (again, though, couldn’t hear a word she sang)…the drum solo, leading into “Words & Guitar,” which kicked major ass…”Step Aside,” which might be my absolute favorite song of theirs…”End Of You”…Janet’s drumming throughout the night…the encore.
Sadly enough, I’m not familiar enough with the new songs to be able to tell which song (and in which order) was played. But they played about ten of them off the new album. The encore was “Little Babies” into a long segue into an apocalyptic “Dig Me Out.”
The lowlight of the night might have been Carrie admonishing the crowd for not having any energy. She mentioned that the band fed off of us and that she wasn’t feeling any reaction from us at all. (I tried the best I could all night, with plenty of “woo-hoos” but…) She even said at one point towards the end that they were playing for themselves and they weren’t sure why we were even there. The crowd tried to make it up towards the end after that, but it might have been too late.
My friend and I tried to figure out what the various problems were. Detroit’s normally a pretty happening venue. The last time S-K was @ the Majestic, the show was absolutely amazing. I remember their version of “White Rabbit” sounded pristine. For me, as I’ve said, the only difference this time was the vocal mix. Perhaps if they toured here in the fall or spring, it might have made a difference; the crowd might have been livelier. Who knows…
Still, a song without vocals by S-K is better than virtually every other band out there.
P.S. — the Black Keys were excellent. Their cover of “She Said She Said” kicked ass, as did most of their other songs. I thought, live, they were much more interesting and enjoyable than the White Stripes. Apparently, however, some dipwad in front was giving them the finger, presumably because he wanted to hear S-K play. Nice guy. This town has enough of an image problem to overcome :(
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