This sold-out event (a benefit to combat the anti-gay-marriage amendment to the Constitution) was billed as a rock show, anchored by such legends as Lou Reed and Bob Mould. But as the $9 drinks began to flow, there was an increasing focus on acts either outrageous (potty-mouthed drag queen Lady Bunny) or outrageously hilarious (Margaret Cho). Sandra Bernhard freestyled personal stories and belted out a few songs, Mould strummed an acoustic guitar to little fanfare, and a solemn, glasses-wearing Reed incanted the lyrics to some of his old songs. In short, the evening didn't feel much like revolution, at least until electro-punk trio Le Tigre took the stage. From their semicoordinated outfits to their low-impact choreography, the band jolted the crowd with songs that were doggedly opinionated and righteously bouncy. Spinning girl-group conventions into a true political party, they peaked with the rama-lama-ding-dong dance jam "Deceptacon."

Nearly all the performers on the bill peppered their sets with anti-Bush barbs and calls for freedom that ranged from the serious (John Cameron Mitchell's demand for equal rights) to the extreme (Moby's invitation to the president to "suck my dick"), but Sleater-Kinney seemed the most ready to take matters into their own hands. Their Zen-like professionalism demonstrated why they're this decade's most viable purveyors of incendiary rock. On "Step Aside" (from 2002's One Beat) Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein's guitars mingled in a sticky frenzy, as Tucker drove home the notion that everyone else had only danced around: "It's not the time to just keep quiet / Speak up one time to the beat."