Sleater-Kinney to open for Stripes

A sentence you probably will hear at The Gorge on Saturday: “Dude, that’s nothing – I saw The White Stripes open for Sleater-Kinney back before they were big.”

The one-upper may not be telling the truth, but one thing’s for sure: Back in the day, Sleater-Kinney gave The White Stripes a leg up.

Now the tables have turned: Sleater-Kinney will open for The White Stripes at the Gorge Amphitheatre on Saturday at 7 p.m., before Sleater-Kinney heads north to open for Pearl Jam on its Canadian tour.

The role reversal doesn’t really bother them.

“It’s just kind of funny. When (The White Stripes) opened for us, we knew that they were definitely on their way to becoming big, and we definitely were like, ‘Whoa, they’re really good,’ ” Corin Tucker, singer and rhythm guitarist for Sleater-Kinney, said from her home in Portland. “And when you have somebody opening for you that’s that good, you notice. So it’s not really that shocking that they’ve achieved so much success.”

Tucker is the intense would-be descendent of The B-52s, the prominent voice for the Northwest’s quintessential power-punk trio, the leader of a team completed by guitarist and vocalist Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss.

Portland’s Sleater-Kinney has rocked it since 1994, through the riot-grrrl feminist movement in Olympia and Seattle’s post-grunge fallout, and now is seen by many as the Northwest’s remaining peak of raw, energetic indie rock.

With each release, more people take notice. Critics hail the band’s latest album, “The Woods,” as a step forward for the group’s sound.

The trio rocked the “Late Show with David Letterman” for the first time in July, taking a step up the ladder to mainstream recognition.

But that’s not really where Sleater-Kinney sees itself heading. Like many of the band’s early peers who passed on or were passed over by the early 1990s’ Northwest explosion, Sleater-Kinney’s a music-first outfit.

“I think the reality of it is that we’re just a little too weird for the mainstream,” Tucker said. “Our music is different, and it’s really not that commercial. … We just come from a different tradition of bands that do it because they love it and not because they want to become rich and famous overnight.”