Sleater-Kinney, Mary Timony @ The Warfield, published July 2005, Zero Magazine

I remember Mary Timony. I remember her first not as the singer of Helium, one of the 90s girl empowerment vehicles more on the Murmurs side of the spectrum than the 7 Year Bitch end. No, I remember Mary Timony being ridiculed for her large nostrils on an episode of Beavis and Butthead. While the size of said nostrils is a subjective matter, the size of Mary Timony’s sound is a lot bigger and deceptively so. Timony’s act consisted of only herself and a drummer. This two-piece recipe is usually a thin mix yet other bass-less bands like Hella and Mates of State have formed their own way to make it cook and this is also true for Timony. However, someone neglected to tell Miss Mary that just because you tour with Sleater-Kinney doesn’t mean you have to sound like Corin Tucker. That was annoying.

This was nowhere near the band I met almost a decade ago yet everything essentially great about it remained the same: Corin Tucker’s wailing voice stronger and sharper than adamantium claws, harmonious guitars reflecting the perfect chemistry between Tucker and Carrie Brownstein that could only be further illustrated by the goo-goo faces they made at each other the entire show. This was the performance of a band that no longer needed to prove they could play. No longer needed to tell the entire world that women could hold their own in male-dominated rock. They’ve already done it and they continue to answer the question that others couldn’t: "now what?"