Sonic Youth Gossip - Dan Graham at MOCA.

MOCA fuses art with music for glamorous opening

Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth rocked out at the opening of Dan Graham: Beyond, MOCA’s

Katrina Bouza

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Published: Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Updated: Wednesday, February 18, 2009

On the evening of Feb. 14, MOCA’s Grand Avenue location opened its doors to museum members, previewing its newest exhibit — the first-ever retrospective of American conceptual artist Dan Graham.

Lines to enter the exhibit snaked across the museum’s lower level, but the real draw of the night took place on the terrace above.

Huddled beneath a large sculpture formed from remnants of automobiles and airplanes, throngs of attendees ranging from hip parents and their children to Los Angeles’ art elite nursing expensive cocktails and chatting with acquaintances.

The crowd seemed rather atypical compared to the normal frequenters of such events: Hopelessly adorable couples on Valentine dates danced drunkenly to a playlist of 80s pop hits and raucous punk rock blaring from speakers; daintily dressed socialites pretended to be interested in conversations about art and culture while hoping for a change of topic; jaded hipsters leaned against the terrace’s large mirrors chain smoking cheap cigarettes.

As the evening progressed, the out-of-place event goers abandoned their overpriced drinks and began to congregate around a tiny, makeshift stage set up beneath a large tent.

Suddenly, the reason many had for attending became very clear — these trendy patrons were not interested in Graham’s exhibit, the endless supply of liquor or the glamour and glitz of their surroundings.

Rather, everyone who crammed toward the stage was there to see two of rock’s most innovative minds sculpt sonic works of art to rival the pieces of the retrospective presented downstairs.

Known primarily for their work in the highly influential 1980s post-punk band Sonic Youth, husband and wife duo Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon — longtime friends of Graham — headlined the event performing as their experimental solo outlet, Mirror/Dash. Moore also arranged a small DJ set prior to the live performance.

Throughout the evening, Moore and Gordon, along with their teenage daughter, nonchalantly wandered through the crowd with avid fans taking notice.

However, the two were a daunting presence — Moore, tall and gangly with chin-length hair and Gordon, thin and staunch-faced, wrapped in a peacoat. Those who noticed the pair walking by often stood awestruck, but never approached the rock idols out of sheer intimidation.

Yet from the very moment Moore took the stage to begin his DJ set, the crowd finally responded — iPhone cameras were raised high, flashbulbs flickered in rapid succession and middle-aged fans hollered with delight.

Moore’s set was peppered with upbeat proto-punk songs like those by former Be Your Own Pet vocalist Jemina Pearl, who performs for Moore’s record label, Ecstatic Peace, along with drone-heavy interludes.

As the crowd grew increasingly anxious, Moore and Gordon took the stage, armed with a fleet of effects pedals, miscellaneous household items and two heavily-stickered Fender Jazzmaster guitars.

Moore’s guitar had undoubtedly seen better days; the body was chipped, a bumper sticker reading “SCHOOL’S OPEN” was tattered and scratched, the pickups were covered with dirt and grime. Nothing, however, could prepare the audience for the barrage of destruction that would soon befall Moore’s instrument of choice.

Moore and Gordon began with a bang — a torrential rain of thrashing, distorted guitar tones coupled with Gordon’s chanting into a processed microphone. While the duo would occasionally dip into more subdued territory throughout their gap-less 30-minute set, the majority of the performance raged full-throttle. Standing in front of the speakers caused listeners’ ears to go numb.

Although the set would appear heavily improvised to casual music aficionados, close examination of Moore and Gordon’s movement displayed a diligently calculated nature of Mirror/Dash’s routine. The two played off each other’s musical ideas with such ease; the couple’s long history of recording music together rendered itself undeniably apparent.

Midway through, Moore pushed Mirror/Dash off a cliff as he hacked away at his guitar strings with a large knitting needle. Broken strings flew into the crowd and the needle bent and warped with each smack — yet Moore carried on, forcing the needle beneath the guitar strings to produce a horrific wave of crashing distortion.

Without warning, Moore subsided his maniacal destruction, and Gordon gave one final ring from her guitar. Not saying a word, the two set down their instruments, shook the hands of enthusiastic audience members in the front row and left the stage as quietly as they came, leaving a persistent hum of noise in their