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Down in Providence at the moment, at Rob and Roo's after spending the night. We all attended the Sleater-Kinney show at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel. I wrote about their last show in Boston last October, mentioning how they weren't very tight and the show lacked a certain energy. Well, version 2 was no different. I understand that bands are always anxious to play new material and let older crowd favorites fade from their live sets, and that's fine. But Sleater-Kinney tackle this problem in a very strange manner. The set was maybe 75% from their latest album One Beat, but every once in a while they would break into an older song, mostly drawn from Dig Me Out. But while playing the older tunes, the band either seemed to just zone out completely, or they would play it at a faster tempo, almost as if trying to get it over with quickly. This was particularly true for "(You're No) Rock 'n' Roll Fun", which Corinne sang like "You're no rock 'n' roll fun, like a party that's over before it's begun, you're no mmph sshhmmph mmmsshhh phhhhmmm GIRL BAND! THE GIRL BAND!" The other characteristic example was "Get Up", the only song in the set from The Hot Rock, which they seem to avoid like the plague. This tune, which I've seen them play with such raw emotion and vigor previously, was sung like they were reading an IRS document. What happened to the girls in the year they took off after touring for All Hands On The Bad One?
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