Review: Sleater-Kinney channels grief without losing edge in dramatic St. Paul showing

Last seen in town under the bright light of a hot summer day at 2022′s final Rock the Garden festival, Sleater-Kinney felt a lot more at home inside a darkened venue on a cold night Saturday in St. Paul.

The indie-rock heroes from Olympia, Wash., played a dramatic batch of tunes under shadowy, moody lighting at the Palace Theatre — a suitable vibe for the songs off the group’s latest LP, “Little Rope.”

Infused with the tsunami of grief singer-guitarist Carrie Brownstein felt following her mother’s sudden death in a car accident, “Little Rope” featured heavily in the 90-minute performance. Seven of the record’s 10 songs were piled into the set list, each loaded with raw emotions.

“Don’t push me now, I’m a real letdown,” Brownstein sang in the distressed bruiser “Don’t Feel Right,” which culminated with a jump-filled guitar solo. “Every night when the sun’s down / Drive around, drown the pain out.”

In sharp contrast to the dry humor she showed as co-creator of the IFC sketch-comedy TV show “Portlandia” with “SNL’s” Fred Armisen, Brownstein let her pain out in assertive and potent ways Saturday. Her bandmate and confidant Corin Tucker followed suit in the newer songs she sang, too, including the show-opener “Hell” and the angularly punky “Small Finds” (with the titular line, “Can you gimme a little rope?”).

Adding to the night’s musings on loss, Brownstein and Tucker also paid tribute to longtime Sub Pop Records labelmate Mimi Parker of the Duluth band Low, who died of cancer in November 2022 — just five months after the Sleater-Kinney bandmembers watched Low’s entire set from beside the stage at that Rock the Garden.

“We miss Mimi with all our hearts,” said Brownstein, calling Low’s music “both earthly and otherworldly, full of grace and truly transformative.”

Proof of that transformative effect followed with a slowed-down rendition of “Dance Song ’97,” which hewed closely to how Low re-recorded the song for a 25th anniversary tribute remake of Sleater-Kinney’s most celebrated album, 1997′s “Dig Me Out.” Brownstein said Low’s version “was exactly the way it was meant to sound.”

Catharsis has been a core ingredient of Sleater-Kinney since those late-’90s albums, when the band vented against sexism, xenophobia and a whole lot more to be held up as a progenitor of rock’s so-called riot-grrrl movement. So the “Little Rope” material fit in right alongside older tunes in the set such as “One More Hour” and “All Hands on the Bad One.”

The band itself has changed over the past decade, from a low-frills trio into a five-piece band layered with piano, synthesizers and even melodica. Keyboardist Galen Clark added the latter instrument to the night’s big singalong moment, “Modern Girl.” Clark’s piano playing in the new pre-encore finale “Untidy Creatures” also helped make it the show’s dramatic apex — complete with Tucker climbing down into the crowd to sing it in true in-your-face fashion.

As heavy as that all sounds, there were still a lot of fun moments in the concert. Brownstein flashed her sense of humor in a weather-related crack: “We’re very happy to be here during your spring break.” She also gave opening band Black Belt Eagle Scout a deserved shout-out by comparing them to past Sleater-Kinney tour openers such as the White Stripes, Black Keys and Lizzo.

Sleater-Kinney themselves have never achieved the level of fame and success as those past openers in their nearly 30-year run, but Saturday’s performance confirmed they remain as relevant, passionate and especially as cathartic as ever.