Sleater-Kinney, Roundhouse, London

In 10 Things I Hate About You, there’s a magical - and sadly fictional - music venue called Club Skunk. Bands with brilliant names like Gigglepuss play raucous sets on the rickety stage while the whole sweaty room pogoes, and afterwards everybody decamps to the bar to hold heated debates about The Raincoats and Bikini Kill. It’s something of a music-lover’s utopia. The Roundhouse tonight feels like Club Skunk magnified to epic, looming proportions, as Sleater-Kinney return for their first London show in almost ten years.

As returns go, there’s very little on earth that can pack more impact per square metre than Corin Tucker’s unhinged vibrato, Carrie Brownstein’s unparalleled command of the fret-boards, and Janet Weiss’ pounding war drums in potent combination. On record the musical chemistry between all three women is tangible enough, but live it morphs into an altogether different beast. At times Tucker and Brownstein face each other squarely to bounce riffs off each other; the rest of the time Brownstein’s an unleashed force, laying down the foundations in a spin of high-kicks and windmilling arms. Meanwhile Weiss doesn’t just hold the rhythmic fort. She hurls out intricate and muscular beats that seem to dance of their own accord. Sleater-Kinney sound like the kind of band that makes kids take a biro to an Argos catalogue, circling plastic electric guitars in the hope of starting a rock band. They sound like pure, undiluted fun.

Tonight’s setlist is something of a whistle-stop tour, which only adds to the celebratory atmosphere. Hopping nimbly from the marching pulse of ‘One Beat’ to the sardonic spoken-word of ‘Get Up’ from 1999‘s ‘The Hot Rock’, and then right back again to the mischievous descending scales of ‘Fangless - from the band’s newest record ‘No Cities To Love’ - Sleater-Kinney are having a ball, and the room is at fever pitch by the closing song. Stalking towards each other and teasing notes, visibly grinning, Tucker, Brownstein and Weiss finish up with ‘Jumpers’.

Soon enough the stamping crowds bring them back out onto the stage.”We know things have changed but things haven’t changed enough,” says Corin Tucker to a hushed room. “So we say: give me respect, give me equality, give me love!” she shouts, with a fist-punch, and it’s time for The Roundhouse to erupt to ‘Gimme Love’. Tucker dramatically crumples to the floor, and Brownstein’s kicks become more frenzied and theatrical; it’s as if Sleater-Kinney live off the energy of their audience. Penultimate song ‘Modern Girl’ enduces a swaying trance, and then just as suddenly ‘Dig Me Out’ breaknecks the night to a triumphant close. Exhume your idols; Sleater-Kinney are back.