Sleater-Kinney Concert Review Archive / 2001-2006

The Seattle Post Intelligencer has a review, click here for the whole thing.

As much fun as it was to listen to the band put on a solid set on the first night of its tour, it was almost as fun to watch the women of Sleater-Kinney perform. Weiss’ shoulder length, jet-black hair swished through the air as she held down each song with equal parts precision and abandon. Brownstein hopped up and down and robotically contorted her body during her reverb-filled solo on “What’s Mine Is Yours.” And Tucker’s passionate screams soared through the venue, as the band played nearly every track from “The Woods.”

The last song before the encore was almost Zeppelin-esque in its grandeur. The longer the song got, the better it became, which made for a dazzling 17-minute set-closer filled with jangled guitar parts, disjointed solos and ferocious drumming even the most jaded critic would have to respect and appreciate.

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by jamie and rick

I saw SK’s performance at the Moore Theater in Seattle last night and
the new material is even better live. I think they played every song
from their new record, including Let’s call it love and Night light as one song. Powerful, ferocious, and definitely heavy, a new level of rock’n out for me. I was blown away, and I have seen Sleater-Kinney perform quite a few times. And get this; they did a cover of “Mother” by Danzig. Just brilliant! The Moore Theatre worked in their favor for good sound. I don’t think I have heard them sound better. I can’t imagine I will see a better show this year.

Other songs included, Get Up, Off with Your Head (DUBYA), Combat Rock, Light Rail Coyote, Oh!, Little Babies, Turn It On, Dig Me Out, 02 (I think). There are probably a few more I missed.

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By Jason Beck

My second Sleater Kinney show. My fourth Pearl Jam show. This may have been the best one yet for me. Security was LAME. I chose the Nash Vegas show because Sleater Kinney is one of my favorites ever. I arrived with my gang of friends around 6:00 p.m. As we were walking up we saw the band and PJ playing Basketball and Ping Pong behind the fence backstage. We stopped only for a second or so. The security guard runs over and tells us “They want you guys to keep moving……” It wasn’t as if we were calling out their names, we were actually just looking. We moved on to the ticket window, picked up our tix and went into the line for entry.

The security guard makes me throw away my pens in my pocket stating ” They really don’t like to sign anything”. It was just a pen in my pocket. A pen. Fine. I move in wandering around the venue to get a sneak peak of the ladies from SK. Many posts have stated they wandered around a bit. No such luck. SK XL tees were sold out as well : ( . I get ready for the show by finding my seat with a nice view.

Ed comes out does a song and introduces SK. They plowed into “O2″ and I got goose bumps. Those ladies put on quite a show. Many times they mentioned “Nobody knows this song but…….” I had already met those gals once in Atlanta so I thought after they said that I would try to show my appreciation after the show. “All Hands on a Bad One” was rocking. ” Don’t watch CNN!!! Read Read !” “End of You” slamming. It doesn’t get any better. The ladies were up to par and served up some jams in the songs to spice it up. There was a newer song that I liked. “You’re No R & R Fun” was catered to the PJ fans although many didn’t know it. I would say they got a better than average response. The fans in Nash Vegas really know how to jump and dance. I caught Coldplay at the Ryman last month and felt the same vibe. I thought for an opening band they did very well in winning over some new fans. The lights came up and went down again.

During the second PJ encore everyone came out and did “Leaving Here”. The gals sang great backup. “Fortunate Son” with Steve Earle too……aghhhhh! And then “Rockin’ in the Free World”. Nice touch at the end. Felt like a great jam amongst fans and friends………ahhhhhh what a night!

Afterward we went back to where the buses were I was hoping to see SK and tell them I was there singing every word and how much I enjoyed it. I was hoping to shake Ed’s hand and tell him great show. Security would have something else in mind. As we stood waiting with maybe 10 others, Security guards threatened to write us tickets and citations if we didn’t leave. What??? It was crazy. I love PJ but I was there to show SK love mostly and these dudes with flashlights were harassing us. No one was outta hand we were just standing there hoping to say thanks. Some people had autographs in mind I am sure but come on. “Leave them kids alone!!!!!” They kept using the word ” They “. “They don’t like you guys waiting.” It was totally lame and they kept threatening the people away. Who are “they” anyway. I hope the band reads this and does something because it was like terrible and harassing for sure. I will probably never go to another amphitheatre show again. We were bummed. It almost put a damper on the whole night until I woke up the next day and said to myself ……… “They” may not like it but you may have seen the best show ever!

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Read full review of this show in Norway from bab2970 on the sleater-kinney.net message board.

As expected, the set was built around the new material, and included most of the song from ‘The Fox’, along with ‘O2′, ‘Step Aside’, ‘Faraway’ and even ‘Get up’. These ladies impress me every time I see them, in paricular Janet’s drumming, she was the motor of the band this night, beating the hell out of those drums. And it’s amazing how much power Corin can unleash when singing. ‘Let’s call it love’ was as raw and rocking as ever, and, along with ‘Jumpers’, probably the highlight of the night. Carrie tried to communicate verbally with the audience between songs, in Norwegian as well as in English, which was much appreciated.

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Steven Rubio has a review of Fillmore’s night two. A taste here:

For me, the band was on fire to such an astounding extent that I didn’t notice they weren’t chatty until I was already won over. They barely stopped between songs … they were very much like an early punk band tonight, just buzzsawing their way through one great song after another with barely a moment to breathe.

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49531 posted some photos and a short review at The Hot Rock Livejournal.

I wasn’t expecting much from the Sacramento crowd because, well, it’s Sacramento (I’m a native, so I can say that) and their last show here wasn’t the greatest, but I’m so glad this city proved me wrong! Maybe it’s because I was up in front, but everyone around me was dancing and singing along to every song.

I know they played one beat, oxygen, words and guitar, turn it on, little babies, little mouth, step aside, youth decay, sympathy, get up, far away, oh!, you’re no rock ‘n roll fun, and some new songs, but I’m not sure what else… (i’m not waiting comes to mind, but i have a really bad memory). Did anyone get a setlist?

And was it just me, or did Corin fuck up during Turn It On? There was also one moment after a song where Janet just kept on drumming and Corin sorta had a “What the fuck?” look on her face. It was cute. There wasn’t much talk between songs, either. I think Sam and Janet mentioned the Kings and that was pretty much it.

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Reprinted from my Donewaiting column, part two for night two
by me, Han Q Duong:

The second night was reasonably similar to the first. Instead of Davies vs. Dresch, the warmup duty belonged to the local band Radio Vago. The last time I saw Radio Vago they were opening for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and they put in a similar performance here, despite changing out lead singers during that time. They play mostly downbeat, keyboard oriented dance tunes with fits and bursts of guitar noise crashing through. I think the noise element needs to be toned down because it has the tendency to overpower the rest of the band.

Quasi’s second night set started off with a drum solo and Sam Coomes humping his keyboard. Why build up to the humping? Just get it out of the way, they say. The set was decidely more song oriented and a lot more effective than the first night. Songs like “Good Times” and “It’s Raining” really popped, and Weiss beat her snare like it stole her wallet. The drums were mixed really loudly, so her blast beats damn near took my head off. There were even moments where Janet was going off so much that it put her partner in a daze, as if he was wondering “how can she hit drums faster than I can hit my keys?” Coomes seemed a little bit confused and out of sorts all night, which is just about perfect for the manic carnival feel of his keyboard work. Unfortunately, he didn’t do any head stands on it, which is the only thing I’ve never seen Sam Coomes do to his keyboard.

Like Quasi, Sleater-Kinney’s second night set also featured a lot less improvisation and was generally tighter all-around. The set started off with an inspired run of quick hitting songs, but a guitar cable fried during “Sympathy” and put a downer on everything. This is the third or fourth time I’ve seen this happen to Carrie Brownstein, and at this point I am willing to pony up my own personal cash to buy her a cordless radio unit for her guitar, because this constant technical difficulty thing is bullshit. I understand this is probably more frustrating for her than me, but COME ON! Uh, I’ll also reserve the right to be a total indian-giver on this if those wireless systems cost thousands of dollars.

If pressed, I’d have to pick the first show as the superior one. It was a little looser and a little sloppier, but I love all the instrumental stuff, and at this point I’ve seen Sleater-Kinney so many times that hearing “Turn It On” or “Dig Me Out” doesn’t have quite the impact that they used to. The crowd was considerably hotter for the second night though, plus they did a cover of the MC5′s “American Ruse,” so there’s also that.

The best thing about both nights was getting to hear the new songs. “I Don’t Care” is bratty and the poppiest of the new batch. “Everything” is based on a heavy, grinding riff and features a harsh clipped vocal from Brownstein and some top notch wailing from Tucker. I was standing pretty close to the speaker stack and the during the bridge of “Everything” I felt like Corin’s voice was going through my eardrum and coming out the other side. “Bomp” is the down and dirtiest of the new material and and Tucker brings back the scratchy, blood-curdling screams that have been mostly forgotten since Call The Doctor.

Of all the new songs, “Entertain” is the strongest, and could end up being one of the very best songs Sleater-Kinney’s ever done. It’s structurally exquisite, with separate elements being introduced over the course of the song before being brought back together during the second iteration of the bridge. The building tension and explosive dynamics are so perfectly rendered that it will almost certainly be one of the bands trademark anthems by the time it’s done.

Like One Beat, the new material looks to feature more of Carrie Brownstein on vocals, and she’s raising her game by leaps and bounds. She’s extending her range and power and she’s got much more interesting phrasing going on so far. If One Beat was their post 9-11 record, then musically there are some hints that this may be their wartime record. “Bomp” starts with guitars that buzz like a fighter squadron and Weiss’ drums echo the militaristic feel with its measured cadences and occassional volleys of artillery fire in the toms and snares.

Thematic speculations aside, there’s one message that’s coming in loud and clear from “Entertain” : “If you’re here to be entertained, please go away, please go away. I’ve got something to say, I’ve got something to say.” We get used to artists becoming progressively softer as the albums go by, as their lives get cushier and their worries lessen. With Sleater-Kinney I’m expecting them to get even harder and heavier musically, more stridently defiant lyrically as the world gets uglier and uglier. Trust ‘em, they’ll have something to say.

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Reprinted from my Donewaiting column, part one for night one
by me, Han Q Duong:

I love Sleater-Kinney.

It’s not a big secret, but I figured I’d get that out of the way in case anyone thought this would be an unbiased review of their recent L.A. shows. I’ve seen them in concert countless times and in my off time I maintain the Sleater-Kinney Concert Review Archive, which stockpiles fan reviews and photos. Between reading all the press clippings and moderating the archive, it wouldn’t surprise me if I’ve read more words about the band than anyone on earth aside from the band’s publicist and parents.

If you are somehow unfamiliar with the band… I dunno, go to a record store or something! They are Corin Tucker (guitar/vocals), Carrie Brownstein (guitar/vocals) and Janet Weiss (drums) and they rock me out of my head with disturbing regularity. The rest you can read on Allmusic.

The band’s currently inbetween records, so this tour was primarily set up to test out new material and keep the band warm before they head to studio later this year. I was doubly excited about the shows because the opening band was another favorite, Quasi. It also meant that Weiss was pulling a double-shift with Quasi and S-K, essentially performing as her own opening act.

The first night actually started with Davies vs. Dresch playing a short set of six songs before anything else. This was only their 4th show or so, and certainly the first before a crowd this of this size, but don’t confuse them for amateurs. This is the latest band for Donna Dresch, who’s work with Team Dresch is considered one of the landmarks of the Riot Grrl movement in the early nineties. Kristina Davies shares vocal and guitar duties with Dresch and their guitar interplay is the crux of the band, just as the band name implies.

Quasi followed with a bizarre opening set that saw a lot of improvisation and a freewheeling, jazzy session of fuzzed up pop. Even though Janet Weiss played twice, she didn’t half-ass it while playing with Quasi. Locked in against Sam Coomes and his pinebox coffin keyboard, Weiss’s drumming for Quasi was actually even more impressive than her S-K work. Her style is so much wilder with Quasi, and with the sparer songs she gets to user her drums with more melodic effect. The set was hard to focus on, with Coomes and Weiss playing a lot of musical games inbetween the actual songs, but Quasi’s so good at that stuff that I could watch it all day.

Sleater-Kinney hit the stage at about 11:00pm and played for a little over an hour. The setlist varied wildly across their catalogue, starting off with “The End of You” from The Hot Rock and ending with “Be Yr Mama” from their self-titled debut. Inbetween was a smattering of everything else, including four new songs that are being prepped for the new record. The set was humming right along until a fight broke out during “Oh!,” and the band cut their song short to restore order. It was a necessary stop, but it slowed the momentum a bit.

Lately, the strongest elements of the Sleater-Kinney live show have been the instrumental segues they’ve been using to string together songs. The main set closed with a continuous chain of “Bomp,” “Hollywood Ending” and then finally “Words and Guitar.” Tucker and Brownstein will turn away from the audience and just concentrate on the improv, and for three or four minutes at a time they’ll play like there’s no one else in the room. There’s something beautifully intimate about it all, and when they hit it right, the segues crescendo right into the starting chords of the next song. They weren’t dead on with it tonight, and doing three songs in a row seemed to sap the energy out of the audience a bit. The band’s talked about doing a whole set non-stop, and while it would be a sight to see, I think they’d outlast the crowd by a far margin.

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By Sara Morrell

Sleater-Kinney’s first Oklahoma show was fantastic. The band was high-energy and seemed to be getting comfortable with the arena thing.

If you care, Janet wore black, Carrie wore off-white bellbottoms and what I think was a western-style shirt while Corin was wearing a very lovely light-colored dress with pleats on the bottom. It almost looked like a flapper dress, which was perfect with her combat boots.

They came out to a fair amount of applause and screaming, and after a quick “We’re Sleater-Kinney,
we’re from Portland, Oregon,” they launched into O2. The crowd standing on the floor waiting for PJ were
facing the band and taking it in, which was a pleasant surprise to me after reading the Denver reviews. There were bouncing SK fans sprinkled throughout the audience.

Before “One beat” they invited “our friend Matt” out to play the tambourine. He’s Pearl Jam’s drummer. He was having a good time during the song, dancing when he wasn’t playing. When he left the stage he gave the tambourine to Carrie. Corin said “They really are the nicest guys,” or something to that effect.

The new song is upbeat and fun. Carrie sings “1974″ repeatedly during one part. I couldn’t make out too
many other words, though. Carrie was doing mad kicks and scissor movements during the entire show, which
blew the crowd away.

Corin asked the crowd, “Are you excited about seeing Pearl Jam?” and the crowd roared. They launched
directly into the chorus of a high-speed version of YNRNRF, then Joey and Step Aside. Corin was dancing
quite a bit.

Corin said that it’s important to stand behind your beliefs, and that she’s behind the peace movement. The crowd cheered. Then she introduced the next song as an appropriate anti-war theme, “Fortunate Son.”

That led into a jam with a mind-blowing solo from Janet, and the show ended with “Dig me out.” And I
went home a very satisfied SK fan, knowing that they just made a massive number of new fans.

o2
Oh!
The end of you
one beat
new song
far away
combat rock
YNRNRF
Joey
step aside
Fortunate son
jam
dig me out

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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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