It’s been a while since I got to see Sleater-Kinney. I was fortunate enough to score some tickets to the acclaimed and mostly sold-out return tour of No New Cities To Love, and let me tell you that it was a hell of an experience to watch the band back in action as if they hadn’t disappeared for ten years following 2005s The Woods. So, with great pleasure, I threw my camera bag over my shoulder and made my way to Downtown LA, The Belasco Theater, my concert home away from home to watch one of the coolest bands ever.
Only one band was scheduled to open for this performance: Brooklyn’s Palehound. Palehound has all the early oughties indie goodness you could want with a healthy dose of rural twang. Their songs have a bittersweet quality that reminds me of growing up with all the weirdness and confusion that comes with adolescence, navigating love, loss, and everything in between.
In between stage changeovers, we were greeted by an impromptu 10-minute comedy set by Sleater-Kinney’s merch manager, Rachel Dispenza. Supposedly, the band found out that they do standup when not touring, so of course, the only option was to have them do a set at every subsequent show. They regaled us with offbeat jokes surrounding life as a non-binary person as well as the pitfalls of aging. Damn, if I didn’t identify with a joke about how easy it is to injure one’s back.
I’ve been into Sleater-Kinney since a friend of mine turned me on to them when I was 15. She also turned me on to Deerhoof. Thanks, Nina! They’re a legendary outfit, and though they lost Janet Weiss, Corine Tucker (CT) and Carrie Brownstein (CB) were not about to throw in the towel. Little Rope is a hell of a return to form, and the band kicks ass.
While the tour is ostensibly due to the release of Little Rope, CB was also keen to point out that this was the 25th anniversary of The Hot Rock, and fittingly, some of the best songs from that album found their way into the setlist. Sleater-Kinney’s shows always have such a positive feeling in the air. The fans are friendlier than your average indie rocker, and the band themselves have such good-natured humor and amicability about them that it’s infectious just to be in their presence.
Although I’ve been listening to them since 2000, I gotta say I always perk the hell up when they pull out “The Fox” from the seminal The Woods album, which marked not only a career-high, but also planted the band firmly in hiatus until the triumphant return and release of No New Cities To Love. They have so many good songs, but damn if that one isn’t a certified “banger.” All said and done, Sleater-Kinney hasn’t lost an ounce of their edge, and as the evening came to a close, I found myself walking back to my car completely satisfied and looking forward to seeing wherever the future takes the band.
*CT’s Setlist.
