Near the beginning of Sleater-Kinney’s 90-minute set at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre on Thursday, March 21, the band’s co-vocalist and guitarist, Carrie Brownstein, said “I hope we made this set rowdy enough for you,” to the excited crowd that packed the venue’s floor. Brownstein didn’t have to worry, at all.
The band, whose history spans nearly three decades since their start in Portland, Oregon, is on tour for their latest release, Little Rope, which came out in January, which along with the band’s prior work, is packed with rowdy songs to fill the setlist.
The show’s opening act was fellow Portland rockers Black Belt Eagle Scout. The alternative band is fronted by singer Katherine Paul, whose work combines post-rock and alternative influences with Native American traditional music. Before Black Belt Eagle Scout’s final song, Paul, who grew up in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in Washington, shouted out the band’s merchandise, all of which is made by indigenous artists.
Sleater-Kinney led off their set with “Hell,” one of the band’s singles off Little Rope—an emotionally-charged song that encapsulates what it is to feel grief and pain, and is capped off with a blistering guitar riff courtesy of Brownstein throughout its chorus.
A standout highlight, in a set filled with many highlights, came late in the set, when the band played “Untidy Creature,” the last track on Little Rope, which was inspired by the heartbreak the band felt about the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The song kicks in with a stately riff from Brownstein, but its true shine is in Corin Tucker’s vocals. Seizing the moment, Tucker walked off the stage and into the crowd for the song’s bridge and second chorus, which showed off the singer’s impressive work on the song.
After drummer Janet Weiss left the band in 2019, Brownstein and Tucker remain the sole original members, with three impressive touring musicians joining them on the tour. Although the band has shifted its membership, Brownstein and Tucker seem more solid than ever, and bounce off one another on the stage. The duo are a songwriting powerhouse, but lack any of the pretension or grandioseness that you’d find in any other rock stars of that caliber. They seem modest on stage, while also giving one of the most flawless live performances you’ll ever see—it really is a sight to behold.
One of the most engaging production aspects of the show was how the band crafted its setlist. Throughout the band’s tenure, the alt icons have bounced around and experimented with plenty of sounds, from the blistering and blasting guitars of the band’s early days, to their more recent experimentations with electronic influences. During Sleater-Kinney’s 90-minute set, they went back and forth, playing tracks from just about all of their 11 albums—and it was seamless. Nothing ever felt awkward, or like an unusual sonic choice.
The iconic alt rock group wrapped up the set with an impressive and expansive encore, that continuously increased in rowdiness, starting with the song “Good Things,” off of the band’s second album Call the Doctor, before continuing on to “Say It Like You Meant It” from Little Rope. The band’s third song in the encore was one of its staples, “Dig Me Out,” from the 1997 album of the same name, before Sleater-Kinney ended on “Entertain,” one of the band’s signature songs from 2005 album The Woods—a self-assured and rowdy performance.
Brownstein never needed to worry.
Sleater-Kinney’s tour continues with international dates through August.
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