Sleater-Kinney

Sleater-Kinney have certainly progressed in sound and vision over the decade since the release of Call The Doctor, hitting highs with 1997’s Dig Me Out and 2002’s One Beat in particular. However, one can imagine that the temptation for them to piece together new from old, to stick the formula, to write another ‘Little Babies’ must be there somewhere in the backs of their minds. They’re ‘veterans’ and ‘pioneers’ of the Riot Grrrl scene, right? Well, right…but maybe if you tuned out for a while you should check in with them again.

There’s no fuss as they take to the stage at their ‘secret’ follow-up to their official London show at the ICA the previous night. (Tickets were, incidentally, advertised on the Barfly site as ‘Slutty-Kitty’.) They tinker with leads and tune up and then, with barely a howdy or hello, slam straight into ‘The Fox’, the opener on new LP The Woods. The tune is indescribably heavy - it’s like treacle tart. It’s like 10 million pounds of sludge from New York and New Jersey. It’s Zeppelin heavy. No matter that the song’s subject matter is almost a sing-songy nursery rhyme about a duck and a fox – the paint-stripping, fuzzed-out guitar tone builds to an immense chorus that finally provides a musical match for Corin Tucker’s powerful yell. Where there was once taut, tense interlacing guitars there is now a wall of fuzz and feedback. Carrie Brownstein wields her SG with evident glee, twisting and pogoing her way around the stage. The new songs are longer and slip into experimental, extemporaneous jams. That’s not to say, however, that S-K have lost their focus. The jams are searching and thoughtful – as the best of Sonic Youth’s or Television’s – and the payoff is always rewarding. The new songs are clearly familiar to the crowd and possible first single ‘Entertain’ is greeted like an old favourite.

The set is split almost evenly between the new material and carefully chosen older songs. They close with ‘Step Aside’ from One Beat – an S-K take on classic 60s girl group tracks, complete with doo wop backing vocals from Carrie and Janet. The Barfly crowd erupts with joy and down at the front, from nowhere, an umbrella pops up, bobbing and shaking to the beat. It’s a sad, funny, floppy old umbrella with struts that have lost almost all structural integrity and its appearance, so comical and spontaneous, puts a broad smile on Corin’s face. For a second. Then it’s back to serious business. Sleater-Kinney sound angry as hell. Rejoice.