By Julia Parnaby
Last night’s show was utterly superb! a million times more fun than Wednesday night which I’d enjoyed a lot, but not loved like I did last night. It may have been that circumstances conspired to put us in better frames of mind, or it may just be that Sleater-Kinney played one of the shows of their lives, I don’t know. Whatever.
We arrived around 7.45 and positioned ourselves in a much better central part of the hall, and suddenly everything seemed better, clearer sound, better view, and on the raised part of the floor rather than stuck behind it. We missed the first band but arrived in time for the Fiery Furnaces (?) who were just great – like 3 bands trying to fight their way out to see who’d win. They were like an odd mix of Patti Smith (the singer was the spit of her in her younger days), the Coral in terms of the mad noodly keyboard sea shanty melodies, the Make-Up for the attitude and look and Led Zep for the lead guitarists endless riffing. The last song “My Dog Was Lost, But Now He’s Found” was genius. Excellent, I’ll be looking out for them from now on.
Scout Niblett on the other hand just wasn’t my cup of tea. I enjoyed the screaming and random banging on the cymbals but the rest I’m afraid left me pretty cold, though I did enjoy her version of Althea and Donna’s Uptown Top Ranking too. But that manky wig she was wearing… ugh!
Finally the lights were dimmed for SK and the crowd started screaming and then… nothing happened. The dj eventually stuck another record on and finally they appeared. It was clear from the beginning that this was going to be something special – Corin and Carrie were chatty like mad after Wednesday’s quietness, and the talk ranged from the rock n roll chic of having a baby and how much sweat had expired the night before and would or wouldn’t flow then. The outfits too were slinkier – Carrie – jeans and a black t-shirt with a tie printed on it – kind of like on the One Beat promo sticker but with geometric black lines; Janet trousers (I think), silver adidas trainers and an astounding pink flowery top with fur trim on the shoulders and a kind of black silky diagonal sash with a bow on the end across the front; Corin a black 3 tier rah rah dress with patterned trim down one side.
The set list seemed way more mixed – still lots of One Beat, but highlights for me included Entertained/ment/whatever; Little Mouth, Little Babies, Get Up, Funeral Song and Ironclad. The encore too was fabulous – Promised Land, The Drama You’ve Been Craving, Words and Guitar and the extended jam into Dig Me Out. The atmosphere was, if anything, hotter and sweatier than the previous night – Carrie said she didn’t plan to sweat so much last night but I’d lay money on any bet that she did! She and Carrie were both jumping and dancing and kicking and posing so much, Janet is the most astounding musician I think I’ve ever seen – she seemed to have hurt her thumb but you would never have guessed from how hard she played, and I was mesmerised by her ability to drum and sing and play harmonica with such intensity.
Truthfully, they were fantastic. I’m hoping they’ll be back here really soon because I think that just may have been one of the gigs of my life. If anyone on here knows them personally then please say thank you so much – you made a 34 year old English woman happier than she thought she could be!
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