Sleater-Kinney played its final two shows at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom. Those who’ve been there know, not only is the Crystal Ballroom owned by the McMenamins who redid the Spar in Olympia (and own about a gazillion other bars around Oregon and Washington), but the venue is known for it’s energy-transferring bouncy floor. I saw both of Sleater-Kinney’s final shows, and even wrote about them for the Weekly Volcano’s blog, Spew. Eddie Vedder opened the final show and sang a beautiful (and I don’t use such a sappy term lightly) duet with Sleater-Kinney drummer, Janet Weiss. They were two of the best rock and roll experiences I’ve ever had. They were by far two of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

In the immediate wake of Sleater-Kinney’s final shows, perhaps immersed in a wave of slightly over-zealous admiration for the band, I wrote this about them. It’s mushy, but I still believe it:

“To reduce Sleater-Kinney to figureheads of some sort of era is to understate them. To say their final performance was an end of an era implies a simplifying connection between the band and a period of time, or movement. They were much more than that. They weren’t simply part of the post-Nirvana, post-grunge period. They weren’t simply feminists. They weren’t simply DIY.

They weren’t just chicks with guitars. Sleater-Kinney was one of the greatest rock bands ever. Period.”

That’s pretty heavy stuff.

But this week’s column isn’t about Sleater-Kinney; it’s about a band from Melbourne, Australia of all places.

Friday, July 27, Ninetynine will play Le Voyeur in Olympia, along with Emme Packer and Johan the Angel. Although until I hit up Wikipedia I had no idea, Ninetynine’s leader, Laura Macfarlane, was the original drummer for Sleater-Kinney. She was a member of the group for the band’s self-titled debut, providing vocals for “Lora’s Song,” and she also manned the skins for Call the Doctor — the band’s amazing 1996 follow-up.    

So, while it’s not particularly fair to Ninetynine or Laura Macfarlane, I’m writing about their show at Le Voyeur this Friday, basically, because back in the day Macfarlane drummed for Sleater-Kinney. If Pete Best came to town with an electro-funk outfit, or Chad Channing was DJing at the Loft, I’d cover that too.

Perhaps, though, just maybe, we can turn this into a positive situation for all parties involved. Let’s take the fact that most of you are interested in Laura Macfarlane because she drummed with Carrie and Corin, and let’s go from there. Check out www. myspace.com/ninetynine for a sound sample, and get to know her a little through a conversation she had with the Weekly Volcano this week.



WEEKLY VOLCANO: Please name each band member and the instrument(s) they play.

LAURA MACFARLANE: In Ninetynine we all swap around between drums, guitar, keyboard and xylophone. Laura Macfarlane, Cameron Potts and Meg Butler.

VOLCANO: Where are you guys from originally?

MACFARLANE: Originally I (Laura) was from Glasgow in Scotland, and my family immigrated to Perth in Australia. Both myself and Cameron grew up in Perth, and Meg is from Castlemaine, a country town outside Melbourne

VOLCANO: Where did your band name come from?

MACFARLANE: The idea behind the name Ninetynine was to have a number because numbers are universally understood regardless of language.

VOLCANO: How did you guys meet each other?

MACFARLANE: Cameron and myself went to the same high school and had also played in other bands together before Ninetynine. Meg and I also play in another group called Tarantula, and we have all known each other for a long time.

VOLCANO: What is your philosophy about life in the music business?

MACFARLANE: To try to have fun

VOLCANO: What are you most looking forward to?

MACFARLANE: We are going to Mexico in a few weeks time. I am excited about that.

VOLCANO: What goals are you working toward right now?

MACFARLANE: Our current tour

VOLCANO: If you had to describe the subject matter of Worlds of Space, Worlds of Population, Worlds of Robots what would you say it’s about?

MACFARLANE: There is not really one theme but one song in particular, “Thylacine,” is about extinction.

VOLCANO: When you began working on this album, you must have said something like “This time we should ____.“ Can you fill in that blank for me?

MACFARLANE: We wanted to have a higher fidelity recording this time around.

VOLCANO: Did you use a producer, or was this a strictly in-house operation?

MACFARLANE: A bit of both.



Laura Macfarlane, who once drummed for Sleater-Kinney, will bring Ninetynine to Olympia on Friday. It won’t be her first visit to Oly. While her past is what initially intrigued me, once I pulled my head out of my ass I realized there was a whole lot more to the Ninetynine story. Hopefully you did too.



[Le Voyeur, Friday, July 27, 10 p.m., no cover, 404 4th Ave E., Olympia, 360.943.5710]