Major Concerts By Sleater Kinney And The Milk Carton Kids Arriving Soon: Let’s Take A Look At The Setlists
On October 31st, Sleater Kinney are at Hammerstein Ballroom, and at on November 1st, The Milk Carton Kids are at Zankel Hall. These are major events. I saw Sleater Kinney (and by saw I mean didn’t see) at Terminal 5 in 2015 (here), and though I did get an early, impressive, viewing of current top of the Hot 100 Lizzo opening, the godawful T5 meant that was all I saw. I ended up sitting on a coach and listening while getting bothered non stop. One of the single worse experiences of my rock and roll existence. But while I wasn’t overwhelmed by Sleater Kinney, who I saw many, many times in the 1990s, I blamed the venue and have never gone back since. I did get a 1st tier balcony seat at the superior Hammerstein Ballroom on Halloween. I have only seen the Milk Carton Kids once and that was six years ago (here), the Llewyn Davis folk revival gig at the Town Hall. I liked them very much but not enough to pursue till last Friday, when their new EP The Only Ones dropped and blew me away. I immediately bought a secondary market ticket (for $105) to catch em at Carnegie Hall’s smaller stage, Zankel Hall, on the day after Sleater Kinney.
For the Milk Carton Kids, the most recent setlist I can find (here) is 17 songs performed in July of this year, which means none of The Only Ones EP is there yet. For some reason it is heavy on the 2013 The Ash And The Clay, and for obvious reasons, also heavy on their 2018 abum, All the Things That I Did and All the Things That I Didn’t Do. Listening to the set list, it is clear I made the right decision in deciding to catch em. They better do the pre-Milk Carton Kids “Girls, Gather ‘Round”…
Sleater Kinney are trickier. First of all, what can we expect from the new drummer? It will be, at least tough, to replace Janet Weiss and reviews note that they are now a duo plus session musicians bringing up the rear. And also the setlist isn’t perfect (here), 11 songs off The Center Must Hold, a pretty good album, but not the superb reunion album No Cities To Love. Five off the difficult The Woods and three off No Cities, but not the title track, possibly their best post reunion song. After that, only three songs from their very greatest achievement, Dig Me Out. And that doesn’t include “One More Hour” (though it does include their greatest song). ANd nothing from the explosive Call The Doctor. Apparently, they would rather be your St. Vincent than your Joey Ramone.
Selist Grades:
Sleater Kinney – B-
The Milk Carton Kids – B
