A Reunited Sleater-Kinney Rocks Out at Marathon Music Works

So, last night at Marathon Music Works The Spin took in an hour-and-change-long set of consistently ferocious post-punk- and vintage-pop-influenced golden-era indie-rock constructions courtesy of Sleater-Kinney, who communicated complex ideas in short, shoutable blasts. Jealous much?

Our failed quest for free parking down a side street made us a few minutes late (this time, we can lay at least part of the blame on a passing train), but we caught most of Seattle hip-hop duo THEEsatisfaction. Locked into a set of synchronized dance moves, MCs Stas Irons and Cat Harris-White poured a laid-back, Q-Tippian flow of jazz- and R&B-inflected vocals over a bed of simmering psychedelic funk. Or so we think — Marathon offers big-arena sound in a cavernous club space that at times overwhelms sonic nuances with boom-y natural reverb. At any rate, we'll be bumping THEEsatsifaction all weekend, and looking forward to seeing them again. They're great on their own, but it'll be a next-level brain-bender if they get to bring a band.

A friend remarked at how quickly the crowd moved in closer to the stage, one more sign of its hunger for Sleater-Kinney's first local show in a decade (previous signs included a dude losing his dinner next to our car). While a crew of serious-looking techs worked through an extensive line check, the P.A. blasted Frippertronic guitar drones that lulled the couples-heavy, mid-30s-trending audience. That proved to be the calm before the storm. The lights went down and the recently reunited band — Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss, as augmented by auxiliary guitarist-keyboardist Katie Harkin of British band Sky Larkin — took the stage and launched straight into "Price Tag" from No Cities to Love, their first record together in 10 years. This opening number, which interrogates the consequences of unchecked consumerism, sounded a warning shot for anyone thinking that time apart might have dulled the band's edge. The set that followed only reinforced the band's tack-sharp vitality, pulling songs from most of their eight-album back catalog, though heavily focused on cuts from No Cities and 2005's The Woods, which fit right in with songs from One Beat and Dig Me Out.

Serious as Sleater-Kinney can get when rocking, the unfettered joy the trio takes in performing and goofing is equally apparent. Brownstein, who's spent some of SK's hiatus co-starring in Portlandia served as the group's de facto emcee. And she wasn't going to let an unsteady microphone stand stop her from pogoing around and striking Queen of Rock poses (that's what stage techs are for). She dedicated "A New Wave" to budding feminist Tina Belcher, who appeared in their music video (along with the rest of the Bob's Burgers brood and a cartoon version of the band), and told us how Nashville set a low bar on their last visit in 2005: "That's not heroic on our part, it's just common decency," Brownstein bantered, recalling how some numbskull got ejected for starting a fight and then keyed "Rat Boy" in the side of their van.

If the singalong to "Modern Girl" during the encore is any indication, we're confident we gave them a better welcome this time. There were just as many voices raised in harmony as there were cross-armed, stone-faced folks, and if you can bat .500 on a singalong, you're doing great — it is rock 'n' roll, after all.