Here's what's happening right now: I bet you're looking at this blog post headline like, "oh huh, I bet that was cool." No. Stop thinking like that. It's fucking awesome. Don't keep this open in another tab like "I'll try to watch it later today." This is not one of those situations. This is a drop-everything alarm. You and I probably don't know each other, but pretend that we're friends and that I'm texting you this with the red exclamation point emoji. Just watch this shit.
Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney are on tour together right now, which is fun to think about. They're two '90s indie acts that made classic records and got tons of critical acclaim out the gate, but they seemed to come from different worlds and to belong to slightly different mini-generations. They've had hugely different trajectories, and I never thought of them as peers.
Last week, opener Snail Mail celebrated her last night on the tour by joining Phair for "Go West." On Monday night, Phair and Sleater-Kinney played Boston's MGM Music Hall, now with Frankie Cosmos aboard as opener. For the encore, Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein got together with Phair for a spirited take on Elastica's breakout hit "Connection" — yet another critically acclaimed '90s classic that seemed to come from an altogether different alt-rock universe. And man, they had fun with it.
Here's something else that Liz Phair and Corin Tucker have in common: They both love busting out exaggerated yelpy half-ironic rock-star vocal affectations. "Connection" is a song with a ton of exaggerated yelpy half-ironic rock-star vocal affectations, and the two of them had a ball tossing those lines back and forth, making theatrical eye contact during the "connection is made" bit. The whole thing had a hugely appealing drunk-buddies-at-karaoke vibe, which only increased on the outro when the two of them boogied over to Brownstein. It's a real "holy shit, they're all friends" moment. I had such a good time watching this. Check it out below.
Before that Boston show, Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney played Brooklyn, and they all got together for the onstage goodbyes and encored by improvising song about lantern flies, or at least trying to. This shit is adorable!
There's only a couple of shows left on this tour, so if you're anywhere near Portland, Maine or Albany, you better not fuck this up.
