When Sleater-Kinney reformed, they were one of the few bands for which that announcement can still garner some excitement and enthusiasm.
Despite overwhelming evidence supporting that most reformations are best left forgotten, there are still a few who you have confidence would only do so for very good reasons.
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Wild Flag – who featured two-thirds of Sleater-Kinney in their line-up – showed that Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss were still on top of their game, and fitting the band nicely into that category of positivity.
Sleater-Kinney - Image © Zoe RussellSleater-Kinney went out on a high. ‘The Woods’ was a devastatingly good album whose tracks like ‘Modern Girl’ and ‘Jumpers’ were opening them up to entire, new audiences. Sure they were still the banner wavers for the riot grrrl movement, but now they were writing stadium-sized songs to go with it.
Their comeback album ‘No Cities To Love’ was a short, yet gobsmackingly good album. It took the most appealing aspects of their music and squished them into a 32-minute hunk of gold.
Tonight at The Triffid (5 March) Bloods were an inspired choice of support act. Their short, simplistic, pop-punk songs interspersed with charming stage presence clearly showed the lasting impact Sleater-Kinney’s influence has had, the band themselves admitting the inspiration.
Though being unfamiliar with their material, they have a knack for writing songs which get stuck in your head; those apparently on their upcoming unreleased album more so than most. Definitely one worth checking out when it’s released.
Sleater-Kinney opened with the storming opener from ‘No Cities To Love’, ‘Price Tag’. It’s an urgent number which grabs your attention from the get go. Corin Tucker’s voice sounded as powerful as ever as she belted out the chorus with gusto.
Sleater-Kinney - Image © Zoe RussellBy the time Carrie started singing during the refrain, everything felt right with the world. It set the pace for an almost tireless set list that focused mainly on output from the last two albums from the band.
Katie Harkin, previously of Sky Larkin, is a welcome addition to the touring line-up helping to beef up the live sound where necessary and playing that all-important keyboard line on the chorus of ‘Oh!’.
It was unfortunate that sound issues that also muddied the first half of Blood’s set continued into Sleater-Kinney’s set. Corin’s bass-sound of her drop-tuned guitar caused certain notes to resonate to the extent where you could barely hear anything else, and ‘Oh!’s trademark keyboard sound was missing for most of the song.
Putting a positive spin on it, it just made the second half of the set even more satisfying, for example ‘Far Away’ sounded absolutely massive. With ‘Entertain’ and ‘Jumpers’ leading the way to the encore, you could have been forgiven for thinking that was it, an incredible set list in itself.
But as the encore began, seeing Corin drop the guitar for ‘Gimme Love’ to show us her moves as an undistracted frontwoman took the song to another level. As Janet then strapped the harmonica on for the inevitable ‘Modern Girl’, it became clear they truly are a band who understand the importance of going out on a high.
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