MUSIC
Saturday, April 24, 2004; Page C03
Sleater-Kinney
In the minutes leading up to Sleater-Kinney's show at the 9:30 club Thursday night, Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" played on the club's sound system. That defiant and sneering rocker was followed by Junior Senior's effervescent dance hit "Move Your Feet." In a way, those two songs hint at the essence of Sleater-Kinney, a rebellious trio from the Northwest that can outpunk the hardest rock band and yet also deliver shimmering wall-of-pop harmonies and songs buoyed by infectious beats and primal rhythms. In short, it is a band that wants to entertain you as much as to slap away your complacency.
For a near-sellout crowd, guitarists Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss played a 75-minute set that revisited a decade's worth of songs and introduced a few new ones. As they charged through ferocious rockers like "Words and Guitar," "The End of You" and "One Beat," the concert grew in intensity as if the whole evening were a call to attention. "Don't breathe the air today / Don't speak of why you're afraid," Tucker wailed on "Far Away," a chilling memoir about feelings engendered by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Whether singing about politics or relationships, clashes or conciliation, the band plays with something approaching a fever. On this night it felt more urgent than ever, particularly during a blistering encore that included "Little Babies" and "You're No Rock N' Roll Fun." A quarter-century from now, most of the chart-topping artists of the past decade will be forgotten. Sleater-Kinney, on the other hand, will be considered perhaps the most important American group of its time.
Opening the show was the Thermals, another Pacific Northwest trio that manifests the substance of punk over style and fashion. In its short, exhilarating set, the band set off sparks with bitter, punchy tales and Husker Du-like speedy rockers.
-- Joe Heim
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38306-2004Apr23.html
