By TheOneBeat (via Sleater-Kinney.Net)
The sign outside read: Tonight SLEATER-KINNEY. The sign inside read: Maximum Capacity 500. These two things usually are not seen together?especially these days since Sleater-Kinney has played to packed arenas opening for a more mainstream band. But last night, Sleater-Kinney dropped by the tiny venue, South Paw, in Brooklyn, New York to play for their true fans. And boy did we show up. The place erupted when the women took the stage and blasted their opening number, ?Oh,? over the speakers. I think we were all in shock?even Sleater-Kinney looked like they could not believe their surroundings. They played most of the One Beat, some old tunes, a new song, and a Springsteen cover during their encore, which also included ?Good Thing? and ?You?re No RocknRoll Fun.? The sound at South Paw was amazing and Corin?s voice sailed over the audience. Carrie was doing her usual hot thing on stage, kicking and jumping when she was not singing. And Janet played the drums while playing the harmonica for the Springsteen song. Carrie made some funny comments about their current tour in the big arenas and how it?s her goal every night to get that one couple eating cheesy nachos, hot dogs, and drinking their over-sized beers, to look up at least once. ?We?re just the background music to their conversations.? So she apologized for not making any eye contact last night at the beginning of their set because she was used to just looking at Janet and Corin due to the fact that the audiences from the bigger shows are a little scary behind all their food. Suffice to say, no one was eating a hot dog at South Paw. Aside from the fact that it was about a hundred degrees inside the venue and the usual crowd of pushers, shovers, and cutters showed up, it was probably the best show I have ever seen. Sleater-Kinney played over an hour and their encore was how an encore should be?impromptu. The women stood onstage for a few minutes discussing what they thought they should play and Corin shushed the boys in the front shouting their requests, much to the delight of the other people in the crowd. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would get a chance to see Sleater-Kinney in this tiny venue on this tour.