Liz Phair has long admired Sleater-Kinney from afar. Phair remembers listening to Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker’s self-titled debut—dropped two years after her own, the genre-defining Exile in Guyville in 1993—while pregnant with her son, and was struck by how they’d crafted such catchy hooks in songs so raw and textured.
“When I heard Sleater-Kinney for the first time, it felt like they were speaking a musical language that I completely understood,” Phair tells Vogue. “Corin and Carrie are both total rock stars and I’ve always held them in such high regard.”
When Phair was planning her fall tour earlier this year, she reached out to the band in hopes that they might be interested in linking up for a handful of dates. The resulting Flannel and the Fury Tour took Phair and Sleater-Kinney across the country this past fall, with support from opening acts Snail Mail, Soccer Mommy, and Frankie Cosmos.
Phair’s favorite part of the tour was getting to watch her fellow tourmates every night before hitting the stage. “Nothing competes with the pleasure and inspiration I receive from watching all of them,” Phair tells me. “Soccer Mommy is not like Sleater-Kinney and I’m not like either of them, but I think we all have smart songwriting in common.”
