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Moshe · 10.07.2006, 03:53 AM

http://dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=21671

Sonic Youth Wins the War Against Eardrums
BY Sean Manning
Contributing Writer
Thursday, October 5, 2006

If ever a band's entire credo could be stuffed into ten glorious minutes of performance, Sonic Youth's grand entrance at the Fillmore this Sunday night was it.
As the now ironically named clan of scraggly, middle-aged rock demigods opened their final US show of the year with the iconic strums of "Teen Age Riot," it was clear that fans were in for a special treat. The rarely performed tune stands not only as the epic introduction to the band's classic album Daydream Nation, but also the closest thing the group has to an anthem. Frontman Thurston Moore, looking like a mop in a dress shirt, sang "it takes a teen age riot to get me out of bed right now," evoking a sense of youthful disillusionment as fitting now as when the song was written in the Reagan era.
These uneasy sentiments dissolved into cacophony as bright guitar chords melted into waves of white noise and feedback. Moore shook like he was in an epileptic fit, wrestling his guitar as it belched and squealed while drummer Steve Shelley embellished this already dramatic effect with a slowly intensifying tribal beat. This tension built for several minutes until culminating in a visually and aurally shocking feat as Moore and guitarist Lee Ranaldo slapped the necks of their instruments against each other, making an unearthly howl along the lines of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader's lightsabers mashing together. The two necks slowly scraped, each spewing a metallic death rattle from their respective amplifiers. In the blink of an eye the sound stopped and the stage went dark. The crowd erupted into screams as if they had just witnessed the sonic equivalent of the Big Bang-and that was just the first song.
With this introduction, it became clear why Sonic Youth has always had the most nebulous role of all of the torchbearers of 80s college rock. The Pixies were the alt-rock godfathers, the Minutemen and Minor Threat had punk and hardcore pegged, and Talking Heads happily married new wave with art school sensibilities. Sonic Youth's mystique is in the fact that they are at once in all and none of these camps-equally likely to be mentioned in a pit at a punk show as at an art gallery (the band performed at the opening of the new Orange County Museum of Art a mere two days prior). This fusion of direct, seductive rock and face-melting noise in the band's opening ear massacre set the tone for the rest of the performance-a set that was as close to Sonic Youth 101 as you're likely to find.
And while the band's set featured a generous serving of songs from the new Rather Ripped, most of the group's stylistic turns and affairs turned up in some form or another. Ranaldo scored a crowd favorite with "Skip Tracer," a beat poetry-inspired ode to New York City, while bassist and occasional frontwoman Kim Gordon prompted dancing and sing-alongs with "Kool Thing," a staple from the band's brief flirtation with grunge. Even selections from the band's early catalogue were represented when Gordon was bathed in red light and blue flame for a terrifyingly intense performance of "Shaking Hell." When parents say rock music is the devil, this is what they're talking about. Sonic Youth may have a reputation as a cult band-their endless vault of albums, solo projects, offshoots and experimental releases attest to this and scare off the casually interested-but in concert, this amorphous identity was anything but a shortcoming. The rock veterans' spattering of old favorites and new accessible tunes made for a surprising set that could please true believers and seduce the uninitiated with sheer brain-rattling force.

Make some noise with Sean at arts@dailycal.org.

10.07.2006, 03:53 AM	#2
Moshe Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5,862	http://dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=21671 Sonic Youth Wins the War Against Eardrums BY Sean Manning Contributing Writer Thursday, October 5, 2006 If ever a band's entire credo could be stuffed into ten glorious minutes of performance, Sonic Youth's grand entrance at the Fillmore this Sunday night was it. As the now ironically named clan of scraggly, middle-aged rock demigods opened their final US show of the year with the iconic strums of "Teen Age Riot," it was clear that fans were in for a special treat. The rarely performed tune stands not only as the epic introduction to the band's classic album Daydream Nation, but also the closest thing the group has to an anthem. Frontman Thurston Moore, looking like a mop in a dress shirt, sang "it takes a teen age riot to get me out of bed right now," evoking a sense of youthful disillusionment as fitting now as when the song was written in the Reagan era. These uneasy sentiments dissolved into cacophony as bright guitar chords melted into waves of white noise and feedback. Moore shook like he was in an epileptic fit, wrestling his guitar as it belched and squealed while drummer Steve Shelley embellished this already dramatic effect with a slowly intensifying tribal beat. This tension built for several minutes until culminating in a visually and aurally shocking feat as Moore and guitarist Lee Ranaldo slapped the necks of their instruments against each other, making an unearthly howl along the lines of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader's lightsabers mashing together. The two necks slowly scraped, each spewing a metallic death rattle from their respective amplifiers. In the blink of an eye the sound stopped and the stage went dark. The crowd erupted into screams as if they had just witnessed the sonic equivalent of the Big Bang-and that was just the first song. With this introduction, it became clear why Sonic Youth has always had the most nebulous role of all of the torchbearers of 80s college rock. The Pixies were the alt-rock godfathers, the Minutemen and Minor Threat had punk and hardcore pegged, and Talking Heads happily married new wave with art school sensibilities. Sonic Youth's mystique is in the fact that they are at once in all and none of these camps-equally likely to be mentioned in a pit at a punk show as at an art gallery (the band performed at the opening of the new Orange County Museum of Art a mere two days prior). This fusion of direct, seductive rock and face-melting noise in the band's opening ear massacre set the tone for the rest of the performance-a set that was as close to Sonic Youth 101 as you're likely to find. And while the band's set featured a generous serving of songs from the new Rather Ripped, most of the group's stylistic turns and affairs turned up in some form or another. Ranaldo scored a crowd favorite with "Skip Tracer," a beat poetry-inspired ode to New York City, while bassist and occasional frontwoman Kim Gordon prompted dancing and sing-alongs with "Kool Thing," a staple from the band's brief flirtation with grunge. Even selections from the band's early catalogue were represented when Gordon was bathed in red light and blue flame for a terrifyingly intense performance of "Shaking Hell." When parents say rock music is the devil, this is what they're talking about. Sonic Youth may have a reputation as a cult band-their endless vault of albums, solo projects, offshoots and experimental releases attest to this and scare off the casually interested-but in concert, this amorphous identity was anything but a shortcoming. The rock veterans' spattering of old favorites and new accessible tunes made for a surprising set that could please true believers and seduce the uninitiated with sheer brain-rattling force. Make some noise with Sean at arts@dailycal.org.
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