MUSIC
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30 & 31, 2019
8:00 PM

Sleater-Kinney
WEDNESDAY: Kings Theater
1027 Flatbush Avenue, Flatbush, Brooklyn
THURSDAY: Hammerstein Ballroom, Manhattan Center
311 West 34th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan

WEDNESDAY: $47.50-$62
http://www.kingstheatre.com/calendar/sleater-kinney/sleater-kinney/
THURSDAY: $49-$50
https://mc34.com/upcoming/#event=30644153

I was really going to pass on this. Sleater-Kinney has taken to using road musicians, which for a punk band is truly unacceptable. Their sparkplug drummer just quit the band over the change in direction evidenced by its new album. And, yeah, that album: the first time I listened to it, I didn't like it at all. Too structured, too constricted, too pop. But I like structured pop music, and maybe you no longer feel like playing like wildwomen into your middle age. Over the last several weeks, it's grown on me. Team leaders and remaining members Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker are smart: socially, politically, and emotionally perceptive; verbally adept. And the poppy, newly eclectic music is smart, too. As between these two shows, I myself can't imagine preferring the Hammerstein Ballroom to the Kings Theater — but my father's house has many mansions.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: For Kings Theater, if only nearby Peppa's had jerk pork along with its supernal jerk chicken, it would be the best thing in the universe instead of just the best thing in Flatbush/Prospect Lefferts Gardens. For Hammerstein Ballroom, I hate to say it, but Hudson Yards' Mercado Little Spain — and in particular Leña — might be your best bet.