By Melissa McMasters
This was my first Sleater-Kinney show, and it was well worth the drive from Memphis. The Black Keys were great, although it would have been nice to have actually seen them (tall guys + curly hair + right in front of you = limited visibility).
S-K was predictably fantastic. They played everything from One Beat except Funeral Song, Prisstina, and Sympathy, plus the other favorites like The End of You, Dig Me Out, and Call the Doctor. The highlight for me was unquestionably Ironclad–it’s my favorite song from AHOTBO and I don’t remember seeing that it was played a lot on this tour. That was a great surprise. The new song is great too.
There wasn’t a lot of banter from the stage, but Carrie mentioned that her parents met in Champaign, and that Janet’s dad used to live there as well. Janet suggested that Carrie was conceived in Champaign, to which she replied, “I was NOT!” Janet’s answer of “That’s not what I heard” got a big “Ooooo” from the crowd, and Carrie, puzzled, said, “Why was that a burn?” Janet finished off with “Haha, your parents had sex!” before starting into the next song. It was cute.
The only issue with the show was that the High Dive was so packed with people that there was no room at all to move. I had a girl crushed like dead weight into my spine for the better part of S-K’s set. Corin at one point said, “Move your feet a little–circulate!” which was literally impossible, at least in my area. So everybody was moving as much as they could, but I don’t know that you could call it dancing. I think if there had been an inch for anyone’s feet to give, there would have been plenty of dancing. The crowd was pretty into it.
So with the very obvious exception of the floor space/visibility issue, the show was great. I hope the band will come back around that way sometime–or, you know, slightly closer than 6 hours away from Memphis!
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