Crouton Bandroom, Melbourne
Friday March 11, 2016 :
Sleater-Kinney returned to the stage at Melbourne’s Croxton Bandroom, for the third and final night; marking the end of their headline shows in Australia. After an almost decade long hiatus, Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss reformed to record and release their eighth studio album, No Cities To Love.
As I walked into the Croxton (part pokie farm, part international touring band gig space), I felt little fires of excitement in my belly. Since the tender age of 13, I had been waiting to see this band live and tonight would finally be my chance. When the curtains came apart, and the ladies finally walked onto stage, the crowd’s applause was immense. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a gig where the fan’s have been so in awe and displayed such a loyalty to the band.
Launching into ‘Price Tag’, Tucker’s signature vocals began to ring out – if I closed my eyes it could have been 2002. She was flawless. Very quickly, it became evident that the three ladies have been playing together for a very long time – they were completely in sync with each other.
Early set highlights included ‘Oh!’ and ‘The End of You.’ Each time a new song started, I was reminded about just how dynamic the trio’s songs are. It was around this point that I started to notice a persistent crackling sound (which had apparently plagued the previous night’s show). Thankfully I had something to distract me.
The whole night I couldn’t take my eyes of Brownstein. After taking a string of office jobs, playing in Wild Flag, and co-creating Portlandia, she has not let her stage presence slip one bit. Taking a wide a-stance, and playing to Tucker, Carrie commanded her guitar, the stage, and the crowd. She completely mesmerised me. The absolute highlight of the night was the whole crowd singing along with Brownstein to ‘Modern Girl,’ as Weiss wailed on the harmonica. There were a lot of smiles in the room.
I’m not going to lie, I was a little disappointed that ‘One Beat’ and ‘All Hands on the Bad One’ had been omitted from the set, but what they did play made me forget all about it. These ladies are immensely talented musicians.
Reviewer and Photographer: Cormack O’Connor
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