Date: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 17:38:08 -0800

From: alphabettown

Just got home yesterday from all five of the s-k East Coast shows. Travelled 2011 miles by car; and about 4500 by plane. I flew from Portland to Michigan ; and drove to the five shows from there. Unbelievable. I am so lucky to have seen them that much. I'm up to 11 Sleater-Kinney shows now. I have 3 more on this coast (West) to see. Yaaaaaaay. I went to the shows with ppl I meant on the W&G list - Moe, Jimmy, and Jimmy's friend Kristen. It couldn't have been a better group. Jimmy and Kristen have a sense of humor similar to mine, and kept me laughing the whole time (except for the times we got lost and driving in NYC). I love those guys. I can't wait to see them again. I feel I have made life-long friends in them. Anyway -- I will be coming out with something that includes reviews of all 5 shows and all the experiences in between. There's just too much to post here. __DC Show -- Black Cat, March 25, 1998:__

This was my favorite show of the five I saw. The venue left a lot to be desired, though. Not the physical venue itself, but the people who worked there. They shuffled us from room to room, only to shuffled right back to original line, and then outside, to wait to get in again. When you get back in, there is someone taking tickets. Another to let you in the door. The woman who was taking tickets tears your ticket in half and gives you a smaller, red ticket. I didn't realize she gave me the smaller red ticket. When I got to the second door to get to the stage, the man asked for my red ticket. Not realizing I had one, because I put my ticket stub in my back pocket (with the red ticket), I couldn’t find it. The woman swore she gave me the red ticket and wouldn't give another. I was near tears, telling her "I travelled all the way from Portland, Oregon to come to this show..." I eventually I found the ticket and got to the area where the stage was; and PROCEEDED TO CRY!!! I was so devastated at the thought of not getting in at all, I cried when it was all over!! Jimmy told me, when I got in, he was going to try to find Kendall (from Helium), to help get me in. She told us earlier, at the Mary Timony in-store performance, that she would put us on the guest list, but we already had tickets.

The opening band, Come, was horrendous. We were told by many ppl before the show, that they were good. I just don't get it. They sucked. They sounded like an 80's hair band. You know, real heavy and dramatic with the electric guitar. I thought I was watching Poison or White Snake. The lead singer was a woman and I was glad about that. I just didn't enjoy their music. Apparently, they have been around a long time. We were just happy that they were opening only the DC show. It would have been awful to have had to sit through them in Philly, New York, and Cambridge too. (At the time, little did I know that Fan Modine and Victory at Sea would be just as bad.)

Helium was very good. I have one single of theirs; and, Jimmy has told me several times how good they are. After seeing them five times on this tour, I *do* like them much better. I'm just not a huge fan. As Jimmy, Kristen,and Moe were told several times, I love that song "Silver Strings". It's beautiful. They played it at all but 2 of the five shows (?); and, also at the in-store Mary Timony performance. Mary Timony is mesmerizing. I'd been told that she's boring live, but I didn't think she was boring at all. She just doesn 't talk much; and, has her eyes closed much of time. That didn't bother me. I watched Kendall play too. She's so darling. So's Mary. Kristen kept saying 'she's cute as a button'. She is.

On to Sleater-Kinney: What can I say. I always do these shitty reviews & it's pathetic. As many times as I've seen them.....As I said before, this was my favorite of the tour. They played wonderfully. played at least 4 new songs. This is the only show where we didn't keep track of the set list. Here it is, not in order: It's Enough, Good Things; By the Time I'm 25 (new); Be Yr Mama; Turn It On; Call the Dr.; One More Hour; Tapping (new - dedicated to Mary Lashes at New Year's Show); new song; new song; Little Mouth; Little Babies; and Words & Guitar (I think Little Mouth & Be Yr Mama were the encores -- Moe, Jimmy??) I could do without Words & Guitar ending every set. It's o.k., though, I guess it gets to be expected....They played well, they played hard, as usual. (I always say that about their shows, but flowery, descriptive writing is not my forte.)

I took pics. Corin is wearing a cute little polka dot dress. Carrie and Janet both had on dark blue shirts. Allison Wolf from Bratmobile was there. The ladies seemed not as happy at this show, as at the others. I think it was sort of a warm up show for them. Their attitudes were so much happier at the latter 4 shows. They always play well. They always give it their all, but they just didn't seem too excited. Hell, it was my fave show of theirs, though.

The crowd at this show was awful, awful, awful.......they moshed. Someone tried to rationally say that they shouldn't do that at a s-k show, but the ppl only got madder and slammed into the naysayers more. A very nice guy, who also tried to talk to them, was shielding Jimmy & Kristen from the Crazy Mosher Girl. One lady was extremely drunk and kept yelling "Yaaaay Sleater-Kinney". It was an obnoxious crowd over all.

Julie Butterfield helped me out with the Safeplace donation, so she asked that I be sure to stop by and tell her hello. I briefly said hi to her at this show. She sold t-shirts. She had a big job, because they were sold out by Philly. That's it. I'm not gonna ramble on anymore....I'll be posting some of my pics from all shows. (And, the set listed I got from Tramps)