Christy Johnson
Last updated on April 8th, 2024 at 08:25 am
Sleater-Kinney dipped into its vast catalog at the Palace Theatre on March 23 for a live performance of pieces both past and present. While surely appreciated by some attending the “Little Rope” tour stop, the majority of fans seemed to respond halfheartedly, especially in the first half of the show.
Maybe it was the impending snowstorm scheduled to descend overnight after an unusually warm winter keeping the crowd preoccupied. But the band seemed to pick up on the lukewarm feedback.
The band’s co-founder, guitarist, and singer Carrie Brownstein, teased the crowd about the weather. “It’s a little cold here… that’s fine. My Uber driver today said that this is very normal, so, that’s great for you guys. But we’re happy to be here with you in this warm theater.”
After a few tracks from the setlist were checked off, Brownstein disclosed, “We’re playing a lot of songs from our new record, Little Rope. We already played a song from an album that came out a while ago—25 years ago this year—called The Hot Rock…which seemed like a lot of you guys didn’t know…but we understand,” she said with laughter and reassurance in her voice.
When the crowd responded with murmured apologies and timid chuckles, Brownstein assured, “It’s OK. It’s OK. It was from the last century.”
Following a slow start to the evening’s song selections, the band from Olympia, Washington, eventually ramped it up and ripped into some more its raw, energetic, and Riot Grrrl evoking numbers while still peppering in softer ones like “Modern Girl.”
Throughout the show, Brownstein and the band’s co-founder, vocalist and guitarist Corin Tucker, took turns leading songs, while touring drummer Angie Boylan kept an energetic beat. Teeny Lieberson filled in on backup vocals, guitar, and percussion, and Toko Yasuda played the keys.
Following a song where the production almost fully illuminated the room, Brownstein asked the crew to keep the lights on. “You guys like to be seen, right? I know you do, come on. I don’t trust that ‘Midwest shyness.’ You guys aren’t shy, right?” she asked the nearly packed theater.
“Thank you for bringing your full selves, whatever version of that self is here with us tonight,” she continued, perhaps reconsidering her earlier comments. “Whether you’re feeling happy or sad or angry or frustrated, thanks for being present with us.”
“To be alive together in a room? Life is f*****g short. It can end in a f*****g second. I don’t know if anyone else has dealt with that but I have and it’s not easy,” she said, no doubt referring to the car wreck that killed her mother and stepfather in 2022. “So, that’s why I stand up here and dance around…even if no one else is dancing,” she laughed.
“[You’re] a little tepid and shy and that’s OK. But I’m having such a great time and I love you no matter how you’re responding to our music,” Brownstein said. “You guys are so sweet and awesome, and I just wanna have a good time up here. So I’ll keep doing what I do and you guys can be yourselves and we love you for that. Thank you so much for being here tonight.”
A pleasant surprise came when Sleater-Kinney sang the praises of a treasured band from Duluth. Brownstein again took to the mic to explain that while her ensemble tends to keep its eyes on the present, they’ve asked other groups to reimagine their works from the past.
“We had a bunch of bands cover the songs from Dig Me Out. What’s beautiful when a band covers your song is that you hear it in a new way,” she said. “In this case, we heard this song in the way it’s absolutely supposed to be sung, and that is from the band Low. They covered ‘Dance Song,’ and Low is one of those bands [that] make music that is both earthly, otherworldly, and truly transformative.”
“We send our love to Alan [Sparhawk] and we miss Mimi [Parker, who died of ovarian cancer in 2022] with all of our hearts,” Brownstein said. “So this is for Low, and this is for you, Minnesota.”
The performance was a highlight of the night, and seemed to engage and enliven the crowd.
Another bright spot was the opening band Black Belt Eagle Scout, a fellow Pacific Northwest band from Portland, Oregon. The punk rock group was the perfect fit for this tour because their ripping music allows them to laud the culture and music of the Swinomish indigenous people.
Brownstein seemed to feel the same. “I gotta say, Black Belt Eagle Scout is an amazing live band with incredible songwriting,” she effused. “We just want to thank them so much. They are truly a phenomenal and meaningful band and it means a lot to have them on this tour.”
As the concert drew to a close, Sleater-Kinney left the stage to thunderous applause. After a bit of a plodding start, they ended the night having delivered a vibrant, memorable performance.
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