Sleater-Kinny
The Regency Ballroom, San Francisco
March 31, 2024
Photos by Raymond Ahner
Some bands have such a reputation as a must-see live act that to miss them would be a folly that you would regret for the rest of your days. One such band is Sleater-Kinney. Following their show at The Warfield, the band performed the next day at The Regency Ballroom. Touring in support of their new album Little Rope, the band, led by the duo of Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, this was the third city where the band played two days in a row, following New York City and Los Angeles.
The five-piece band, consisting of Tucker and Brownstein on vocals and guitar, Angie Boylan on drums, Toko Yasuda on keyboards, and Teeny Lieberson on keyboards and guitar, took to the stage to a loud and vocal reception from the audience. The band opened the show with “Hell,” the first song on Little Rope. While the song starts out as a slower, moodier song than you might expect from the band, the band kicked into high gear as Corin shouts out, “You ask why like there’s no tomorrow!” Although it was a fine start to the show, the group kicked it into high gear with the following song, “Needlessly Wild.” A more uptempo number that has Brownstein on lead vocals, she became more unrestrained as the song went out, screaming out, “I’m needlessly wild, I’m punching out air, I’m breaking my stride” between making rock star poses with her guitar.
The set that followed saw the band, now thirty years on from their initial formation in Olympia, WA, expertly navigating their extensive back catalogue. The recently released Little Rope is the band’s eleventh studio album, and over the course of their career they’ve gone from minimal focused riot grrrl-inspired indie rock to electronic and even industrial-tinged songs and albums. A band that has gone through various stylistic changes can sometimes run into certain songs sticking out when they play those songs live and pair them with other material. But the setlist, which went as far back as their 1997 album Dig Me Out, flowed seamlessly. “The Center Won’t Hold” segued perfectly into “Small Finds,” which in turn led perfectly into “One More Hour.” Sleater-Kinney is also the kind of band that changes up their setlist show-by-show, so you never know what they’re going to play next.
Having released eleven albums, I’m not afraid to admit that I haven’t listened to every single Sleater-Kinney song. There were definitely a couple of songs that the band performed that I just was not familiar with. And usually when I see a band play a song I don’t know, I’m either doing a quick Google search on my phone to see what the song is, or I might tune out if I’m not particularly interested in it. But during those songs, I was too busy being enraptured by the band’s performance. Corin is more reserved in her stage presence, generally staying on her side of the stage looking razor-focused. Carrie on the other hand is far more exaggerated in her movements, kicking her legs up and strutting all over the place.
March 31st was the Trans Day Of Visibility, and that occasion wasn’t lost on the band. Towards the end of the set Carrie approached the microphone and said, “There are over 450 anti-LGBTQ+ propositions on ballots throughout the country. None of them are in California. Living in a progressive area, you can sometimes forget about the marginalized that don’t live in those kinds of areas. So reach out to your trans friends. Help them however you can.” She then dedicated the next song to those individuals, “A New Wave” from the album No Cities To Love.
Perhaps it’s because the show at The Regency Ballroom took place so late into the tour, but the new songs were performed with an immediacy and aggressiveness that isn’t always there on the new album. The best example of that was with the song that closed the main set, “Untidy Creature.” Carrie Brownstein’s guitar lead sounded both blistering and mournful in a way that doesn’t come across on the recorded version. The second half of the song saw Corin coming offstage into the front of the audience as she pleaded, “And it feels like we were broken, and I’m holding the pieces so tight.”
Of course the band came out for an encore. They couldn’t not. And although it opened with the mid-tempo “Say It Like You Mean It,” the band continued with arguably their most popular song, “Dig Me Out.” The audience erupted, nearly everyone in the venue jumping and screaming, “Dig me out! Dig me in!” back at Corin as the band worked the song into a frenzy. There was another song, “Entertain” from The Woods, but it truly felt like the show concluded with the penultimate song of the set. Regardless, the final song was still a powerhouse of a number that, once finished, left the crowd needing more. But oh well. Next time.
Opening the show was the band Palehound. Fronted by songwriter/guitarist/singer Ellen Kempner, the band plays the kind of straight-ahead indie rock that you can tell was directly inspired by Sleater-Kinney. Despite being given an extended opening set, they unfortunately failed to leave much of an impression on me during their ten-song set. But that’s probably my own shortcoming, as the rest of the crowd was very, very into them.
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