Show Review

Sleater-Kinney spent their day leading up to their night performance in Burlington, VT on a pedal boat on Lake Champlain. Is there something wrong with this picture?

Not the Sleater-Kinney of 2005. By now Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, and Janet Weiss must be sick to death of the exhaustive phrase – “riot grrrls.”

So completely switching modes from the tight punk of their prior six albums to a fresh power trio, they enlisted Dave Fridmann, of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots fame, to produce their latest brash recording – The Woods. Bridging the classic rock gap of Led Zeppelin, The Who and Hendrix with the disarming contemporary melodies of Sonic Youth, Sleater Kinney have reinvented themselves yet again. And judging from their live performance at Higher Ground, they sure know how to rule the stage, as riot grrrls or not.

Brownstein plays like a true badass, one giant whirlwind and guitar smashing incident away from Pete Townshend. Tucker sings like a banshee in a hot cage, giving a grace of urgency to Sleater-Kinney’s barely understandable vocals, and drummer Janet Weiss puts on a show of her own with monster fills. And forget about the bass player, because there is none. Without a four string, Brownstein and Tucker complement each other’s guitar lines as Tucker plays those missing low end single notes.

Opening with “The Fox” off of The Woods, Tucker shouted out “Land Ho!” in the odd story of the chance meeting of a fox and duck. They then steamrolled through the nervous rocker “Jumpers” to the militant march of “Entertain” and the retro-garage rock haze of “Rollercoaster,” complete with Brownstein laying down some well-worn surf riffs.

If opening for Pearl Jam a few years back taught the girls anything, it’s the ability to take risks on stage. And they did just that in “Lets Call It Love,” breaking into a lengthy power jam as the two guitarists traded licks into a simultaneous upheaval of noise.

As the tour winds down, Sleater-Kinney prove to be comfortable and confident enough with their new material to make it their “show,” leaving the crowd more or less standing still with a curious “ I can’t believe I haven’t seen them before” look. Sleater-Kinney can’t believe you haven’t heard them live yet either.