One of Sleater-Kinney’s defining characteristics, and something that is exemplified in the songs from their live performance, are the band’s simple yet poignant lyrics. For “Start Together,” the song’s opening lyrics, sung by Tucker, are a slow and sweeping “If you want me, it’s changing/ If you want, everything’s changing.” The themes from this song tie in nicely with the next song in the performance, “Be Yr Mama” from their debut album. This song has many subversive lyrics about motherhood and femininity, including “You’re inside me/ I’m yr mommy.” These two songs reflect the band’s attitude toward the current social climate and their own feminist ideologies. The politics of third wave feminism have three central dogmas, all of which are accurately reflected in their lyrics. The third wave focuses on “…the collapse of the category of women…multivocality and action…[and] an inclusive and nonjudgemental approach” (Snyder). Being called “challengers to the male Rockstar throne” (McDonnell), Sleater-Kinney challenges the male structured cannon of rock music in their lyrics and performance, thus signifying the third dogma. The band, along with many bands in the Riot Grrrl scene, were feminist and pro-queer (Sleater-Kinney being define by some as queer-core, even). The songs are indicative of an anger at being trapped in traditional boxes of womanhood, as well as an awareness that things are changing.
The final song in their performance is “Words and Guitar.” This song is pretty repetitive with it’s ABAB structure with a bridge. The main chorus lyrics are “Words and guitar, I got it/ Words and guitar, I want it.” The guitar is typically seen as a male codified or even phallic symbol in western music, so they are taking ownership of and reversing the coded role of this instrument, both in the lyrics and by actually playing guitar. The other thing that the band is trying to take ownership of are words themselves. According to first Whitley, “Women can only be described as the other” (95), meaning that since language is male codified and male-centric, women will inevitably be “the other” in this language. Thus, saying that they “got words” means that they are trying to take this language and utilize it for themselves. I say trying, because it is a feat that they ultimately cannot accomplish, since they say “words and guitar, I want it.” This point is further elaborated in the song when Tucker sings “I dream of quiet sounds/ I hear the silky sounds.” These are concepts that Tucker and Brownstein want to have, but cannot save for their dreams.