Highgate

Monday

SY @ HG

Sonic Youth

I have to say i wasn't expecting much; i hadn't seen them before, and i've only ever been a casual SY fan, more appreciative of what they did for music, and how long they've been doing it, than the actual contents of their songs. Which is not to say i don't acknowledge their awesomeness, i do... they're awesome. I know it's blasphemous to say, and i'll probably have my No New York record taken away from me; but their albums (dirty and day dream nation withstanding) never really held my interest until their last 3, and i wasn't exactly blown away by their latest...

All that being said; they fucking rocked my cock off. I havn't heard a tighter live show in as long as i can remember; their energy was excellent, ripping into song after song just shy of with ferocity, and segwaying into quieter numbers like the well oiled (and aged) machine they are. kim bopped around and looked like she was enjoying herself a bit; thursten fucked around w/ his guitars and made some righteous feedback. - There was noise when they wanted noise, and otherwise, they just rocked. Later i wondered to myself, if their 20+ years of blowing minds and amps has left them almost too good at what they do - If i have one complaint its that I was in no danger; while i'm not an expert on SY nor was any more than 9 years old in the 80's i am aware of what was happening in New York, and how destructive their sound was... But last night there were no melt downs, no broken guitars, no destroyed amps, bashed electronics, or crowd alienating feedback onslaughts, - it was Controlled Chaos, though at it's finest to be certain.
-------(continued today at work.)--------

All that being said last night - it was a great show; the crowd had fun - i had fun, even Jenny who's usual sonic diet consists of Donovan, Joan Biaz, and Dilan, had fun. I got a chance to see a bunch of faces i hadn't seen in while thanks to old man winter; Casey and Brooke, lovely as ever, Nick (who was listening to something labeled DJ Tanner on Ipod when i picked up my tickets, leaving me wondering how he got his hands on it...) Josh "European shag" LaClair, Luke and for the first time, the very sexy, very friendly Jay... what a piece of beefcake that guy is huh? ladies, are you with me!?

JDK did some sort of a promotional thing w/ thank you cards for sonic youth; you can view the whole thing here.

13 comments:

Faith said...

I actually cried a little bit when I read this. I obviously missed out on something big. All I've gotten to see here was Girltalk, and all the blogging assholes got in my face. So sad.

jay said...

Yes, the radiant glow of sexiness that is "Jay" can never escape me....it is both a curse and a blessing :)

It was really great to meet you at the show!

Anonymous said...

You know, if there was one show some of you hipsters should've swallowed your pride, unfolded your arms, and pushed your way to the front, it was this one. I realize that would've required you to renounce at least two key prerequisites of your covenant, but while you were brushing wisps of hair from your eyes by the bar, Thurston was laying down solos, oh, roughly ten inches from my face. Dude even stepped on my fingers during Teenage Riot! The symbolism! And yes, I had to stand next to a gaggle of college girls who would periodically erupt with, "OMGLOLWELOVEYOUTHURSTONOMGKIMUROCKLOL!," but it was more than worth that minor annoyance to upgrade a show from great to completely transcedent. Tanner, you're excused, as you pointed out that your alcohol consumption level was not conducive to that particular setting. (Probably a wise choice.) As for the rest of you, MEMO: Apathy is boring.

Faith, if you're reading this, check your dang myspace messages and send me an e-mail. Congrats on the paperthinwalls gig, by the way! Your Of Montreal article was great!

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the show (and SY in general) wasn't that great, Hipster Covenant or no.

The ARBitrator said...

Damn, sounds like I missed one hell of a show.

But I've never even heard Sonic Youth, to my memory. Damn my ignorance!

Anonymous said...

I'm telling Sue Westfield, Casey!

Anonymous said...

thanks for the reviews. sounds like it was super. of course i wish i could have been there. damn, deerhoof and SY after we move.
nick and i saw sonic youth about a month ago. i think every german over 6 feet tall was there.
josh, rest assured i would have stiff armed my way up to the front.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBiq60heXQc&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Esevendaysvt%2Ecom%2F

Not a SY fan at all, but a couple friends of mine went and got on this video, thought you might like it.

-B. Sodaro

Tanner M. said...

Ah, the thought of Sue throwing elbows at a Sonic Youth show; that brought a tear to MY eyes, faith.

Thanks for the Link Mr. Sodaro, whoever you are ;D

btw, brian, i remember coming back from, what was it, Costco? when we were about 15, your mom was driving us in her Van, and you had just picked up the Bends... and were singing the lyrics "You do it to yourself" over and over again...

Tanner M. said...

note: 1, tear, two eyes... that is some conservative tear shedding...

the le duo said...

1. I know I'm a recent convert so it may be causing me to view the show through rose colored glasses, but I thought it was great. Best rock show I've seen in a long while.

2. I'm not really a fan of seeing the show right from the front- I think it sounds better from the middle, and you can see just fine in a place like HG. To tell you the truth, you could probably tell Kim's age from up there...from the middle she was 25!

3. Brian!

4. thas all

Anonymous said...

apathy can be boring. standing in the back and taking the whole scene in is something else too. plus i had to have room to take out my notebook and diagram kim's amazing aerobic dance moves.
jb, kim looks good no matter where you see her from. she looks like cool.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to add that to make that kick ass German thing even better, would be to use proper grammar:

Halten Sie
Hammerzeit

g