How's your new year's eve going so far?

Ever since I found out that Sleater-Kinney was playing a gig at The Showbox, I had to make preparations to make every effort to be there.  I've made a major turnaround to enjoying this trio's music since a couple of years ago.  What song made it that way for me, you ask?  That would be Combat Rock from One Beat.  I first heard this track on MOJO Magazine's punk compilation CD which featured old school stuff from The Undertones, Siouxie and The Banshees, The Buzzcocks, and the new groups passing on the tradition like The Hot Hot Heat, The Strokes, and Mudhoney.  The earlier-mentioned song was somehow a nod to the classics...interestingly enough, The Clash was also in the collection.  The seething anger and indignation over the current state of political affairs transcended those few minutes of music to me.  This was what punk was all about and it was real.

Fast forward to last Thursday night at The Showbox.  It's rained for weeks on end in western Washington.  This night was compounded with quite the wind gusts as well.  I've pretty much been half-soaking wet that evening walking to the venue with the busted spokes holding my umbrella together.

I was greeted by the piano and drums duo Quasi.  I almost forgot that I was going to see Janet Weiss hit the stage twice during the evening.  They put together a good set, even if I'm mostly unfamiliar with their music.  I then saw my co-worker Keith and his wife Tasha who told me that the band was on an "off" night.  It wasn't even their best performance.

We proceeded to shoot the shit for a while, talking about stuff like how The Hold Steady only has limited appeal so far because of the Minnesotta references (Keith's wife comes from that locale) and about how Alaska and Hawaii seem to get the shaft when bands tour the US.  The couple had to leave though because they were just both still reeling from jetlag and a bad cold.  They didn't even stay for the frankly forgetful Steven Malkmus and The Jicks set.  I wasn't a Pavement fan either, so I just took the opportunity to write text messages on the phone while waiting for S-K.  As soon as the middle act was done, I had to relocate myself to a better vantage point from the stage.  I ended up at Corin's side of the performance area.

The band powered through a very heavy set, mostly featuring stuff from The Woods and One Beat.  The highlights of the night for me have got to be that feedback freakout moment where Carrie gets all rock-star-like complete with those rock guitar moves that I even pull out when I'm "in the moment" during a performance.  The other highlight was when they played Light Rail Coyote.  It was great to hear the vocal contrasts of Carrie's stacatto blanketed by Corin's measures-long wails.  I've actually revisited that song on different moments of the day in my iPod yesterday.  I also picked up a great shirt that almost mimicks the Marshall Tucker Band tee that Corin was sportin' in the inlay photo for One Beat.  I didn't stay for Sympathy.  I didn't want to miss my boat ride home.  I copped the setlist and a photo from the gig off a S-K messageboard (and a live version of One Beat to boot--the performance is not from this particular show though):

The Fox
Everything
Wilderness
Rollercoaster
Step Aside
Light-rail Coyote
Was It A Lie?
Jumpers
Modern Girl (with instrumental jam)
What's Yours Is Mine
Oh!
Let's Call It Love/Entertain

Encore:
One Beat
Ironclad
The Promised Land
Sympathy


One Beat (live) - Sleater-Kinney



It's also interesting to note that on the evening after the show, some of the most important women in my life contacted me by phone or by text message.  I guess there was so much grrl-ness emanating from the gig that there was just this psychic thing going on with all of them.