Reality-BasedTM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot
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Holiday Cheer | Home | The States that Howard Dean's support: an analysis
It's no surprise that Sleater-Kinney puts most of the recent crop of hipster-indie-rock-whatever to shame (though as much as it pains me to say it, the second single off of Room on Fire is really, really, catchy). It'd be easy to define the band by what they're not, but it's what they are that makes them exciting. First and foremost, they're having a ton of fun on stage, and more than any other band, they're trying to get the audience to share in that fun. And it feels so ... genuine, as much as it seems silly to extrapolate character from a performance. Okay, so guitarist Carrie Brownstein is more than a little goofy on stage, and to an extent it's an act [after all, they are performers] but it sure as hell looks like they're all enjoying themselves. Musically, they're just distinct to become attention-grabbers; you can't put you're finger on but that there's something makes them sound different. Most notably the have a knack for breaking rules and getting away with it -- their ability to use parallel fourths and have it work is astounding. They're also a rare band that's both sonically and lyrically interesting, their subject matter ranges from the absurd-just-for-fun ("Little Babies") to the out and out political ("Combat Rock"). Usually I'm not particularly interested in lyrics, so from my perspective they're an added bonus. But if you're a lyrics kind of gent (or lady), then you can start from there and treat the music as an added bonus. Like most bands, a live concert is almost always even better than the CD.
The main ingredient to Sunday's show was Sleater-Kinney's new album One Beat [Note: this album rules, despite being only my fourth-favorite Sleater-Kinney album. That still probably puts it in my top 15 or 20 favorite albums], using everything except "Pristina", "Funeral Song", and "Combat Rock" [I guess Sunday wasn't a very good for protest rock]. Mix in a healthy dose of Dig Me Out ("Turn it On", "The Drama You've Been Craving", "Words and Guitar", "Little Babies", "Not What You Want"), Garnish with "You're No Rock and Roll Fun" and use "Little Mouth" to top it all off. Yields one tasty concert. Best served standing -- allow guests to add applause and dancing to taste. Cooking time is about two hours.
It was really easy to tell when the band played a new song -- people danced less, probably out of confusion [indie rock concert dancing is somehow different from the usual thrash. I want to give it a name. What do you think of "The Hipster Hop"? Yes, it's mildly mocking, sort of like the painfully accurate "The White-Boy Overbite"]. Since I'm not a fan of The Hot Rock, I wasn't perfectly sure what was new and what was old, but Sleater-Kinney seem to be toying with rhythm more these days. At one point they accented the "and" of the upbeat of four, producing incredible results. On other cuts they used changes in tempo to give the illusion of two songs within one. The crowd was into it at times.
The only downer to the show was the acoustics/audio setup. You could tell when opening act Cat Power was totally unintelligible. Being something of a devotee, the lack of clarity was only a small loss, but if you're new to Sleater-Kinney or are really into the lyrics, light a candle and hope that the next concert does a better job with the sound. This is yet another reason for you to go buy a CD and wear it out before you go see them live. If indie rock isn't your thing, start with Sleater-Kinney -- they're just different enough from all the stuff that's started to appear on the radio in the past year that you might like it. If you do get to the concert and find yourself bored, here are a few things you can ponder to occupy yourself:
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updated by Nicholas Beaudrot on 11:32 13 February 2005
