I find the urge to report on tonight's show too great, and I must voice my praise.
After a brief half hour wait, the doors opened and I planted myself on the far left of the stage (or stage right, for any theater students out there) and waited a, again brief, hour for things to get rolling. So the Gossip make their entrance (humorously introduced as "Argentina's 'The Gossip'") and immediately demanded that the audience dance. Well, if you say so. As time would tell, no one gets an audience on their side quite as quickly as the Gossip and their set of southern fried stomp rawk was dy-no-mite. My friend and I quickly agreed that the guitarist is probably the coolest person ever. The raunch that came out of this man's guitar was incredible. The singer's ability to work a crowd and force even the stiffest of us to loosen up was pretty impressive as well. After a few numbers, she commenced to recruit a band of dancers from the crowd to join the group on stage, some of whom took the opportunity to strip and dry hump . . . ok, good deal. Carrie also joined the band onstage for some pretty dirty dancing, and Corin wasn't far behind. Out of sight. Soon enough, I was boosting many a young lady onto the stage, but, alas, too shy to join them. Oh well. By the way, if you were there and in my vicinity, I was that goofy kid with the backward Milwaukee Brewers hat awkwardly stomping up and down. This set also featured the beginning of the run on joke of the night with a phantom joker tossing cookies and other snack foods at the band from the balcony offstage. At the end of the set, The Gossip marched off in triumph, and you had to know they would - they have a full time dancer in their band for Christ's sake - how fucking cool is that?
So now the crowd is fired up, and the legendary Bratmobile take the stage after a short break. I don't think I was expecting the band to be quite so out of practice, or Allison's nuttiness, but that's not to take anything away from them, if anything it made them better. Erin Smith and Molly Neuman are true vets, and they handle their instruments with a confident swagger. I especially enjoyed the smirk on Erin's face that just said without a doubt "I am the shit". Allison is one crazy lady, and did well at giving the impression that she wasn't quite sure what was going on. If I remember right, she actually did say "Where am I?" at one point. Another great bit was picking up the cookies thrown in the aforementioned incident and handing them to the crowd. I think my favorite Allison moment was after she proclaimed that if you hadn't danced for The Gossip you might as well turn around and leave, the crowd strangely cheered. To which she had this priceless reaction and said "Alright, let's cheer for going home." Whatever you say about Allison, she is the consummate performer, and the ass shaking and high kicks are perfection. A great side note, Allison talks how she sings, predictably.
So now we're whetting our appetites for the main event, and soon enough the great Sleater-Kinney made their refreshingly modest entrance. My crush for Corin consumed me rather quickly and I began to rethink my choice of the left side. But hey, anywhere in the front is pretty damn good so I stopped dwelling and seeped into the music as those subtle first notes of "The Ballad of a Ladyman" kicked things off. This is one of my favorites, but the next choice of "Start Together" was what really blew my skirt up, and it didn't come down the rest of the show. Hearing those crushing chords and the writhing and plaintive wail of Corin was a little piece of heaven. Carrie is a guitar genius and I could hardly believe the power she exudes with this instrument, and she's also very polite as well, smiling and thanking the crowd after pretty much every song, and citing the fans in San Francisco as being some of their oldest - right on. Corin, of course, is no slouch herself and adds the deep groove in this perfect marriage of guitar interplay. She is an excellent performer and adds to every song with her expressiveness - not to mention one sexy lady - damn girl! Gotta tell you you're fine. I'm not going to try to remember the exact set list but everything was on and I found it inspiring to see a band that's just so . . . well, good! The onstage talk was minimal, which became very effective when they just bashed one song out after the other. Standout's for me were "All Hands On the Bad One", "You're No Rock n' Roll Fun", "Ironclad", "Call the Doctor", "Anonymous", "Male Model", "Milkshake n' Honey", "Words and Guitar", "One Song For You", "Youth Decay", "Was It a Lie?", and especially "The End of You" - anticipating that wonderful line of "I am not the captain, I am just another fan.", and "Little Babies" which featured some great improvisation. I guess the point is that the whole fucking thing was great. After closing the main set, they thankfully returned rather quickly for the encore, which began with a certainly appropriate for the venue cover of "White Rabbit". The follow up was a divine version of "Good Things" featuring the take-it-to-the-bank dancing talent of The Gossip (I once again was speechless when confronted by the coolness of their guitar player, that guy can cut a rug like no other). "Turn it On" quickly followed to my pleasure. It was during this time the phantom bomber threw a couple bananas at Janet's drum kit. That's fuckin' funny. The band once again tried to flee, but the crowd would not be denied - and the triumphant trio returned to kick out the old school jams "Sold Out" and "Be Yr Mama". Word. "Little Mouth" was then begun and apparently to close the night, but before anyone could blink Carrie struck up the now immortal riff to begin "Dig Me Out". It was a perfect close to a perfect night, and to top it all off, Carrie handed me her guitar pick as she walked off. I nearly pooed myself in pleasure. I then waddled out with the rest of the pleased patrons and drove home to write this dumbass review; by the way, if I got any of the songs mixed up, sue me, it's late and I'm still a little bewildered.
June 8, 2000 - San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore
By: nati bati yi *damaged@sinking.org*
the gossip were fucking excellent. bratmobile were okay. (i got excited when alison started singing "beer city," because the peechees are ace.)
i was right in front of carrie, two people back.. but that didn't last long. i've been to a general admission cure show before. cure fans are fucking RABBID. i didn't get nearly as pushed around then as i did at the s-k show last night. it was awful. it's nice that people were getting into it, but i had to stop dancing just so i could concentrate all my energy into staying upright. one girl was completely rubbing up against me. if it was a guy, it would not have been tolerated. when me and my friend decided to leave the front, i started screaming "get the FUCK out of my way, NOW" and pushing my way through. no one wanted to let me leave.
but fuck it. i had fun in the back. we danced. i made out with a boy in the corner of the club. let's just say that "white rabbit" and "turn it on" are a beyond sexy combination.
of all the sleater-kinney shows i've been to, this was probbaly the best. it could top my list of favourite shows ever, and not just because i scored another point on the purity test. maybe it was because i wasn't right up front, and i got to dance and be a dork and not have some chick humping my ass and shoving her tits into my back. ugh.
and so much from the first record! no "dance song '97" though. boo.
June 8, 2000 - San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore
By: Laura Compton *lola1999@earthlink.net*
Set list: Ballad of a Ladyman, Start Together, All Hands on the Bad One, Ironclad, Call the Doctor (dedicated to S.F. fans), One More Hour, You're No Rock 'n' Roll Fun, The Professional, Milkshake 'n Honey, The End of You, One Song for You, Words + Guitar, #1 Must Have, Was it a Lie?, Stay Where You Are, Male Model, Little Babies, Youth Decay
first set of encores: White Rabbit, Turn It On, Good Things, Dig Me Out second set: Sold Out, Be Yr Mama, Little Mouth (note: this is slightly different than the one on the site, but this is how I wrote it down.)
When Sleater-Kinney took the stage Thursday night, the first thing I was struck by was how quickly they got down to business. Maybe the sound was better at the Fillmore (it was a little distorted where I was, on the side; it seemed liked the vocals could have been louder), but every other time I've seen them, they've had to do a lot more adjusting and tuning. This time, it was obvious they were ready from the first moment. Corin issued a challenge to the crowd to dance, since it was the last night and there had been so much great dancing at the other shows, and then proceeded to rip through a terrific set list. (At one point, Carrie even said, "This is going by WAY too fast." Agreed!)
I had gotten there later than planned and decided I didn't want to try to get up close. For one thing, there were SO MANY tall people. Also, my friends already had a good spot on the side near the bar where you can actually sit or stand and be up a little higher. I'm not sure if the distance had anything to do with it, but overall, the band seemed more confident than I have ever seen them: Like, "Yes, we can AND WILL rock the Fillmore." It was so inspiring. It was especially amazing to FINALLY hear the new songs live; some sounded slower ("Milkshake 'n Honey"); others rocked fiercely "(#1 Must Have"). The band seemed pretty loose and playful, but still turned on a dime on so many of the thrilling choruses and transitions, and easily cranked up the energy level from song to song. People were yelling, screaming, dancing to all the songs. Of the new songs, "You're No Rock 'N' Roll Fun" seemed to get the biggest response.
The other thing that struck me was Corin's performance. I remember hearing a difference in her singing last year at This Ain't No Festival, but this time I could see it too. She was much more animated, and was vamping it up quite a bit of the time. It really added an edge to all the material, but particularly the new album. Janet was incredible, as always, but even more so because she did so many backing vocals. I LOVED the extended ending to "Little Babies"; it was one of those "why Sleater-Kinney rules moments" as all three of them jammed. Carrie had all the old moves in effect, and some new ones as well. In her white T-shirt and Levi's, she looked like she could be Bruce Springsteen's sister, circa "Born in the U.S.A." And I got to hear her scream "Fire! Fire!"
During "Milkshake 'n Honey," I realized that not only are S-K the world's greatest band, as the announcer mentioned, but also one of the sexiest. How can that much talent, charisma, confidence, energy and talent not be? They've always had these elements, but I felt like it finally all came together in this show (and the rest of the tour, probably). Like Nicholas said in his review, they were at their peak. When Corin sang, "As the model breaks, take the stage," it was unbelievable.
The encores were fabulous, particularly "White Rabbit." They did one of my all-time favorites, "Be Yr Mama," which I didn't think they had been doing this tour. (Unfortunately, I missed my other favorite line of Carrie's, "Damn you!", because my boss (!) came over and started talking to me.) Even though I was still a little disappointed I didn't get quite as intense an experience as usual (physically, at least; I came out quite intact), I still loved the show and enjoyed watching it from a slightly different perspective. And, as usual, I've had the songs running through my head all weekend.
