Those words are distinctively pointed, but what really distinguishes Sleater-Kinney, then and now, is the singing of Carrie Brownstein and especially Corin Tucker. The band’s two founding members intertwine their voices, weaving them into jabbing guitar lines that ascend almost as high as Tucker’s beautiful-but-not-pretty caterwaul. This musical ballet was mirrored by the way the high-kicking Brownstein and the more-anchored Tucker moved in and out of each other’s physical orbits onstage.

The band played all of its latest album, “The Center Won’t Hold,” plus an urgent new song, “Animal,” recorded during the same sessions. Hyper-produced by St. Vincent, the recent recordings alarmed some fans, especially since the new style seemed to lead to the departure of longtime drummer Janet Weiss. She’s been replaced by Angie Boylan, whose playing at the Anthem was spare and powerful.

Two other auxiliary players, multi-instrumentalists Katie Harkin and Toko Yasuda, helped reproduce the new album’s fuller sound. Yasuda, a veteran of St. Vincent’s band, played keyboards most of the time, and Harkin did occasionally. The contributions of the additional musicians didn’t clutter the sound, and sometimes Harkin and Yasuda had little to do. They vanished entirely during such earlier, spikier songs as “One More Hour” and “Dig Me Out.”

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The older numbers prompted the strongest response from the almost-capacity crowd, but the new material was also received enthusiastically. If the band’s original musical style has been upholstered, its passions are little altered. The refrain of “Animal” is “I’m not who you thought,” which could be a line from the group’s 1995 debut.