As music, the songs and the way they sounded when they played em, Sleater-Kinney had their moments at this big deal reunion center last night at Terminal 5, but as a pleasurable viewing experience, it didn’t. That may not be Sleater -Kinney’s fault exactly, though I’ve seen the two guitarist in other band settings where they are much more forthcoming, it is the fault of a disgraceful venue that leaves half of the audience unable to see a damn thing. I arrive half an hour before the opening act, the excellent rapper, singer Minneapolis’ Lizzo hit the stage (“Black lives matter” -yup) , and it didn’t help in the slightest. Wanna know about Corin Tucker “wailing, flipping her hair, claiming the stage”? Read Jon Pareles in the New York Times, I didn’t see it. Wanna read about about half of Carrie Brownstein buckling at the legs while she throws up sheets of white noise notes slipping in between Corin more melodic guitar, well that’s as close as I got to the stage.
There is a great deal of difference between the rock critic for major publication and me, and what I am writing about is not what they are writing about. I am writing about a packed to the gills gig where Sleater-Kinney were hard to see for the vast majority of the audience. Half an hour into their ridiculously short 75 minute set, I gave up doing much more than staring at monitors.
Sleater-Kinney are the world’s greatest riot grrrl band, a little less impressive when you figure Bratmobile and Bikini Kill are your main competition, who released two great albums (one of which was not represented last night), followed it with three much iffier proposals, broke up, and returned with a masterful new album. Other than that, what people, women, homosexuals, outsiders, outliers, dig about em is a more or less complete irrelevance to me. I like the guitars and I like Corin’s wail and Carrie’s kinetic energy and the great drummer Janet Weiss, I like how it sounds in my ear and it sounded great, and if I am less keen on on the songs themselves, there are more than enough goodies to fill the time.
The 23 song set included 8 out of 10 songs off the newbie, usually a problem but No Cities To Love (“we wrote this about here” Corin lied before they performed the title track), suburban angsty moment works well for me, and everything is post Dig Me Out and while I really was surprised they ignored Call The Doctor (no “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone” and when they do play it they’ve been they’ve been adding a line about “I Wanna Be Your Thurston Moore”. Talk about adding insult to injury), still under normal circumstances, I’d have considered it a little too short but still powerful and pleasurable set. But the venue was so terrible, such a disgracefully viewer unfriendly venue (the designer should be shot), it ruined the experience for me and not just me, T5 is the most restless place on earth, people are constantly moving backwards and forwards trying to see something, anything, except other people’s head.
So, how was the show? Better Sleater-Kinney singing feminist and gay rights than Macklemore And Lewis that’s for sure, but, hardly surprisingly , they are much more fun when singing about sex. Tucker does excitement so well, her voice becomes a screech and borderline hysterical and the band keeps with her. The encore, “Turn It On”, “One More Hour”,and “Dig Me Out”with just one newbie between them, is a wallop the rest of the night didn’t quite pack. The most touching moment was Corin’s “Don’t say another word about the other girl”. Though the rest of the show had moments of quite alarming force and straight up pleasures, “No Cities To Love” was a disappointment but “Oh!” a complete revelation and if everyone gets their moment “Oh!” was Carrie’s for sure; Weiss has the most compact drum solo ever, and while this review might feel full of doubts, in retrospect, while nothing knocked me out, there wasn’t a bad moment or even close to one. There is only so much you can dislike a gig (even if you can’t see it), that includes spurts of such true greatness as “One Beat”, “Words And Guitars” and “Bury Our Friends”… as irritating as the entire evening is, they are just unreal moments, where the questions they want to raise as self-aware women, adults, whatever, make their point the only way they can: through sound. The band are beyond tight: they play right up against each, and when they harmonise it is a magical womanhood much more important than self evident stuff (to an audience of 30 somethings mind) about Planned Parenthood.
Does it matter what they matter to other people? How much they helped kids in their teens grow up on great rock and roll and then bring in everybody else; I loved them since their second album but it isn’t about me. I can’t imagine how it felt for teen misfits, young girls, to connect to this sexy powerset punk bard hard rock band. But, again, how does it matter, how does it matter to who they are today? Did you read their Pitchfork interview, laughingly called “A Certain Rebellion”: Swanning around with Paul Allen at a Blazers game. Yuck. That’s punk? There is something not quite right here, it is like the typical levels of stardom, it is like what happened to Lady Gaga: the person just leaves us and it feels like if SK ever connected to a sound or movement, they are somewhere else entirely now. Rather Care Bears On Fire, or Claire’s Diary, band’s so completely influenced by SK but younger, smaller, more into it, more true to their scene. The stench of privilege is all over SK.
Perhaps that’s why there is something a little icy about them, as live bands go SK play it a little too cool, a little too close to their chest, if the music is releasing something it is hard to see quite what it is.They don’t talk to us much, the set is ridiculously short, and the band aren’t that forthcoming. I wrote this about a Wild Flag gig in 2011 here: “As the set went on, Carrie came across like twenty kinds of rock stars, she has charisma and she has charm, and the band are like an alt rock jam band and they do it well.” A year later I saw Corin Tucker Band at Mercury Lounge here (“Using the set to delve deep into the Corin Tucker Band’s new album, Kill The Blues, a distilled portrait of the artist as a married mommy, Corin was both restrained and overwhelming. Before the opening song, “Summer Jam” was over, Corin was shredding her guitar”). Sleater-Kinney are better than both bands but I couldn’t prove it last night.
If you’re going tonight, get there early, Lizzo was really good. Lizzo get on at 815, SK around 925 though it says 915 on the box office billboard.
Grade: B
