Sleater-Kinney at Palace Theatre, St Paul (23 Mar 2024)

Tour Dates

Portland’s finest, Sleater-Kinney, just headlined the Palace Theatre, in St Paul, last night. The group is touring in support of their eleventh studio album, Little Rope (Loma Vista).

This review is partly in association with our friend, Jennifer Juniper, who sent in her report for Sleater-Kinney’s appearance at the Rivera Theatre, in Chicago, Illinois. As you can see from the photo, singer/guitarist Corin Tucker is wearing what looks like a gold dress.

The band hardly spoke, except singer/bassist Carrie Brownstein mention that the Chicago audience was “the best audience so far.” I am assuming by best, they meant turn out and very interactive. I’m sure it could also mean well behaved.

Each stop on the tour, SK had a different concert poster for the show. Unfortunately, the Chicago posters did not arrive to the venue on time, so fans were offered a signed poster if they ordered that poster on their website, as a concession.

The SK’s Minnesota poster arrived on time, and were sold for $40, with an optional $5 poster tube to protect the poster. The band also offered all their albums on vinyl. Their latest album, Little Rope was also pre-signed, so it was an attractive option if you hadn’t already purchased the record. We ended up buying SK socks, which we’ve never seen this sort of band merchandise before.

If you’re a Sleater-Kinney fan, this tour was merchandised-packed, so plenty of fans bought something to take home with them. We’re talking from experience, as we are longtime fans and have supported the band since 1998, “from the last decade”, as Corin puts it.

This was the sixth time we’ve seen the band (previously: Rock the Garden 2022 (11 Jun 2022), First Avenue (14 Feb 2015), First Avenue (15 Jun 2005), First Avenue (08 Oct 2002), and First Avenue (15 Oct 1998))…

It’s good to see the band again, especially because we were all under the impression that the band broke up, following the departure of drummer
Janet Weiss in 2019. Given near-death experiences with family members, the band decided to get back together and make music again. “Life is short and can end in a second,” Carrie said on stage.

This is partly the reason why Little Rope was released and why they’re reconnecting with their fanbase on this 2024 tour.

The St Paul show was somewhat special, because we got to hear “Dance Song ‘97” live, but done in Low’s version that appeared on Dig Me In: A Dig Me Out Covers Album.

Carrie explained, “For the 25th anniversary of Dig Me Out, we didn’t want to look back. We wanted to look forward. So, we got other musicians to play our songs. When we heard Low’s version of ‘Dance Song ‘97’… Low made the song the way it was meant to be heard. It was truly transformative, and we dedicate this song to Alan Sparhawk and, we miss Mimi Parker.”

Truly and unforgettable dedication to Low.

Black Belt Eagle Scout opened the show for Chicago and St Paul… with St Paul, sadly, being BBES’s last stop on the tour. They were incredibly grateful to be part of this tour, and often thanked Sleater-Kinney (SK would later mentioned that BBES was one of their best bands they’ve worked with, a list that included Lizzo).

We like Katherine Paul (who performs under the stagename) and have seen her at the Cedar Cultural Center and said, “KP demonstrated with “My Blood Runs Through This Land” that she can play a howling guitar, but many of her songs harbored a contemplative state like “Sčičudᶻ (A Narrow Place)” a song inspired by long walks through cedar forests during the pandemic. With “Salmon Stinta” KP and Puckett created a nice dynamic between their guitars with Puckett playing the calm waters and KP the salmon moving upstream.”

Although the last song was dedicated to indigenous people (and any outsiders, minorities), all her songs have similar themes, such as “My Blood Runs Through This Land”, “Indians Never Die”, and “Sam, a Dream.”