Sacramento has a new live music venue in the midtown area. It's called the Empire, and I went there for the first time the other night to see Sleater-Kinney. The place has the size and location to make it a good draw for national acts that have a hard time filling an arena or large auditorium, but still need more than a couple hundred paid admissions to make a profit.

Sleater-Kinney was great. This was my first time seeing them live. I had tickets to see them last year, but got sick the day of the show. I'm glad I got a second chance.

The band is made up of two guitarists, Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker, and drummer Janet Weiss. They have been playing together for about a decade, and have recorded some great music. The ladies rock live.

I've never seen a crowd with so many women wearing glasses. It was kinda sexy. There were even some kids in the audience, as it was an "all ages" show.

My only gripes were that the sound quality sucked, but that's true of most bands playing before a crowd of more than 50 people, and that the band didn't interact with the audience. The only words I heard anyone in the band say were "thank you" after the applause for a couple of songs and also after being called back for an encore or "turn up my monitor" to the crew. I like to feel some connection with a band, when I see them live. That usually takes some small talk from the artist. Otherwise, I could stay home and listen to a recording.

Despite the lack of conversation, I would highly recommend Sleater-Kinney for anyone that likes alt-rock, or whatever category people want to classify them with. See them live, if you get the chance, or download their music and see what you missed.