Comment on Sleater-Kinney’s statement rock

Give me equality, give me respect, give me love,” Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker chanted from the edge of the Masonic stage in San Francisco Saturday before launching into an animated version of the band’s new song, “Gimme Love. The riot-grrrl, post-punk-inspired trio burst out of the Pacific Northwest in the mid-’90s and quickly became known for its fierce, distinctive sound built around Tucker and Carrie Brownstein’s intricate guitar and vocal interplay and Janet Weiss’ propulsive drumming, and exhilarating live shows. By 2005, when they released their sixth album, the epic “The Woods” on Sub Pop, they no longer needed any genre or gender qualifiers — they were a great rock band, period. Thousands of fans welcomed Sleater-Kinney with deafening cheers as they took the stage and pounded out the first two songs from their new album, the muscular, challenging “No Cities to Love” (recorded secretly in San Francisco). The audience, a healthy mix of ages and gender, seemed most excited by the heavier, more recent material, but heartily sang along with the poppier “Little Babies” and “Words and Guitar” from 1997’s Dig Me Out. During “What’s Mine Is Yours,” she stood bathed in purple light, her girly striped crop top and matching skirt belying the repeated operatic eruptions. Brownstein, clad in a short leather skirt and ankle boots, not only kicked, she also mounted an an amp, played her guitar aloft above her head, and even perched atop one of Weiss’ drums.