CHICAGO — There have been times when folks have called Sleater-Kinney too brash or too loud. “I literally don’t give a (expletive) anymore,” said Carrie Brownstein. And so was the mood Thursday night on the fairgrounds at the Salt Shed, as Sleater-Kinney and Liz Phair played a two-hour-plus co-headlining set to a crowd largely filled with enthusiastic and sweet Gen Xers and elder millennials.

The moment was the setup for Sleater-Kinney’s brilliantly bombastic 1996 track “Little Mouth,” a song in a catalog of loud, audacious and memorable music. Brownstein cited the way the world is right now, with so many voices being diminished, in an emphatic cry that spoke to the fierceness of the dream of the ’90s — not going quietly into the night, especially when the activism and energy that set Sleater-Kinney apart is needed now more than ever.

“There’s a bunch of versions of loudness,” Brownstein said. “This is not the time to be annoyed by loud people.”

That energy of loudness wove itself throughout the evening as the group performed a strong collection of tunes from their robust catalog, including “You’re No Rock N’ Roll Fun” and “All Hands on the Bad One.” I especially loved their opening number, “Hell,” from their 2024 record, “Little Rope.” Deep red lights pierced through the chill, foggy night as Brownstein and Corin Tucker effortlessly bellowed the lyrics, sounding both cool and ferocious.

There was still room to dance in the evening, or at least bop around to the music. The righteous, feminist classic “Little Babies” got most folks around me outright dancing, and how could they not? It was a jam, and still is, a timeless encapsulation of complicated family dynamics, now magnified through the streets of Goose Island.

Later, Chicago’s own Liz Phair took to the stage with a sort of dreamy cool that only she could perfect. A lot has changed since she lived in Chicago. At one point, she asked folks where they were from, citing Wicker Park, Lincoln Park and the North Shore. Those areas — long changed since she last lived here — garnered little enthusiasm from the audience, and Phair asked, “(Expletive), where are you from?” before diving into the iconic “Go West.” Time can change a place seemingly overnight.

Yet Phair’s songs still resonate now as much as they did when she first debuted with “Exile in Guyville.” After performing “Help Me Mary,” she noted that the song was written “a mile from here.” Classics like “Johnny Feelgood” from her 1998 album “Whitechocolatespaceegg” got most of the folks around me singing along from start to finish. Later, her rendition of “Flower” was particularly potent this evening, its shortness instilling a sort of yearning. I wished the song could go on forever.

“Stratford-on-Guy,” which Phair described as Chicago’s song, transitioned perfectly into one of her poppier hits, “Extraordinary,” which, surprisingly, inspired many audience members to take out their phones and record video. It may have been one of the more controversial tracks on her 2003 self-titled album (just like “Why Can’t I?”), but its fans run deep, at least in this city.

After performing “Crystal Ball,” a “cynical but also not not cynical” new track she pressed as a 7-inch for this tour, Phair dived back into many of her most beloved songs, fueling giddy audience members to escape with her for the night. It was a perfect, nostalgic evening.

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