Sleater Kinney and Yo La Tengo playing neighbouring rooms in the same venue on the same evening seemed like a strange planning decision given their overlapping fanbase. Still, it made for an interesting game of pairing the fan to the show before everyone separated into their parallel queues.
Supporting Sleater-Kinney was Gina Birch, founding member of legendary ’70s post-punk band The Raincoats. Complete with retro outfits and hairstyles the set was a light-hearted throwback with Gina’s solo material retaining the experimental offbeat post-punk sound that had Kurt Cobain put The Raincoats in his top 20 albums. “People get angry about feminism these days but there is still a lot to fight for” was a sentiment not lost on tonight’s crowd.
The lights go down and Sleater-Kinney comes to the stage in a chaotic flurry of strobes, harmonics, and screaming with ‘Hell’, the first song on the newly released album ‘Little Rope’. It is a hell of a first song for the album and sets the atmosphere perfectly for the show marking somewhat of a return to their rock roots after a few more experimental albums.
In between songs, Carrie discussed how much the rainy weather reminded her fondly of home and gave a friendly reminder to the crowd that ‘No Cities To Love’ was “not about Glasgow”. Their set jumps between new songs from ‘Little Rope’ to gems from their extensive (12 albums!) back catalogue and every one of them hit hard. A humorous hiccup aside the band is mesmerizing live with Carrie’s bouncing around the stage and Corin belting out hit after hit defiantly.
Last year, Le Tigre took to the stage at the Barrowlands, and it has been barely a month since Bikini Kill’s long-awaited gig at the O2. It has been a bumper year for fans of riot grrrl bands, and tonight not only feels like being in the presence of punk rock legends but also a band who are as relevant and on top of their form as they have ever been.
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