Nine years ago, Sleater-Kinney (SK) played its final show, and it was widely believed until this past year that the riot grrrl group originating from Olympia, Washington would never reform. The release of a new album and guitarist Carrie Brownstein’s time spent on Portlandia with Fred Armisen, generated a newfound buzz on the band that has bridged the gap between the group’s die-hard fans, and the next generation who were too young to know the band before the split.
The legacy of their legendary live shows never faded from the memory of anyone who had experienced a Sleater-Kinney concert before. There is a good reason for that.
The three piece group’s final show in 2006 was held at the Crystal Ballroom in the band’s adopted home of Portland, Oregon. With a wide variation of age groups present, many fans reunited with the band, while others were lucky enough to experience SK for the first time. Everyone in the building, including the band, was ready for SK to come back to Portland.
“This song is not about Portland,” Carrie Brownstein said before playing the title track of the new album, “No Cities To Love.” “It’s good to be home for 20 hours,” she added. For the first song of the encore, Brownstein dedicated “Light Rail Coyote” to Portland, a song about the city’s downtown life.
The trio, which features two guitars tuned to drop C-sharp to substitute for a bass guitar, is Brownstein, lead singer Corin Tucker, and drummer Janet Weiss. Tucker and Brownstein consistently interlock guitars and vocals, creating a sense of impending chaos. For this tour, SK has enlisted Katie Harkin to aid the band’s sound, adding extra guitar parts, and keyboards to “Modern Girl,” and “Oh!”
While the new material such as “Bury Our Friends,” “No Anthems”, and “Price Tag” was excellent live, the early material boasted an unmatched energy that had the sprung floor of the ballroom bouncing like a trampoline. The sellout crowd that packed the Crystal Ballroom attempted to match the energy of Brownstein, but her high kicking and charismatic guitar playing found her jumping across the stage for a majority of the set, playing on her knees and back, and climbing to the summit of Janet Weiss’ bass drum.
Weiss very well could be the human incarnation of a perfectly programmed drum machine, as she never missed a beat, making complicated drum parts seem trivial, attacking with a power and unrelenting aggression that never let up for the whole show.
A prime example of the band’s cohesion unfurled itself during “Let’s Call It Love,” the epic 11 minute climax from the near-perfect album The Woods. Each member had a chance to showcase their greatest skills as Brownstein’s extensive guitar solo and desperate vocals clash with Corin Tucker’s powerful banshee-esque howl. Weiss locked into an extended groove with Tucker during Brownstein’s solo, but explored her drum kit with forceful reckless abandon.
“Words And Guitar” crescendoed into a formidable wall of sound before leading into the chaotic “Entertain.” After a brief silent and motionless timeout, the regular set was concluded with “Jumpers.”
For the encore, Tucker delivered a brief speech about Planned Parenthood, an organization that has accompanied the band on the tour, before singing “Gimme Love” with only a microphone in hand, passing guitar duties to Harkin.
The show closed with an energetic take on “Dig Me Out,” and a venue wide sing-along to “Modern Girl.” Few bands provide as much fun and sheer joy at a concert as Sleater-Kinney. The term nostalgia act gets tossed around anytime a band reforms after a breakup, but this is no nostalgia act. Sleater-Kinney picked up on the peak it temporarily departed from, and the old fans should be just as thankful as the new generation that is finally able to experience a Sleater-Kinney show.
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Concert Review: Sleater-Kinney energetically returns to Portland in peak form