Live In Concert from NPR's All Songs Considered

The last time Sleater-Kinney played the 9:30 Club, a transformer threatened to blow in the midst of a summer heat wave. Or maybe the Washington, D.C., club just couldn't handle Corin Tucker's pipes. That was nine years ago, on a goodbye-for-now tour that caught the trio at the top of its game. The show was rescheduled and taped for NPR Music, and we had our closure, crossing fingers that it wouldn't be the last we'd hear from Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss. In the intervening years, all three put their energies into other projects, musical and not, sometimes even with each other. But Sleater-Kinney has an electric chemistry of its own. As Brownstein says, "I really think Sleater-Kinney is a singular band with no clear predecessor or successor, so I don't think we started out creating music that you could see the palette of colors that we were using, and maybe draw a lineage." On the first night of a two-night gig at the 9:30 Club, Sleater-Kinney went all-in with its set list. Tracks from the band's monster of a new album, No Cities To Love, felt natural alongside songs like "Oh!" and "Words And Guitar," obliterating the band's timeline by demonstrating a catalog that's always present, always on fire.

Hear Mavis Staples perform as part of the 2014 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Sunday, July 27 in Newport, R.I.

Hear Aoife O'Donovan perform as part of the 2014 Newport Folk Featival, recorded live on Saturday, July 26 in Newport, R.I.

Hear Band Of Horses perform as part of the 2014 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Friday, July 25 in Newport, R.I.

Hear Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer perform together as part of the 2014 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Friday, July 25 in Newport, R.I.

Hear Dawes perform as part of the 2014 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Saturday, July 27 in Newport, R.I.

Hear Shovels & Rope perform some of its new songs and some old favorites as part of the 2014 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Saturday, July 26 in Newport, R.I.

Hear Deer Tick perform live in concert at the 2014 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Saturday, July 26 in Newport, R.I.

Hear Ages and Ages perform as part of the 2014 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Sunday, July 27 in Newport, R.I.

Backed by his touring band and vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig — the co-leads of the band Lucius — Jeff Tweedy surveyed his career onstage as part of the 2014 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Sunday, July 27 in Newport, R.I.