It’s revision time, picture the scene: I haven’t had credit on my phone for over a month, I’ve had no social life, I’ve been very, very bored. Then for no reason at all, out of the academic textbooks and scribbled notes about political liberalism, I get a text saying something far better than “I’ve been in love with you for months, take me now” or “do you want a free burger king lol” or even “I have a spare ticket to Rome, all expenses paid, come”. No. The text said “sonic youth are playing next Monday at the scala!”
Scala, Kings Cross, London, 19.25pm: Blue skied evening, toothless touts and a diverse crowd lined up round the block to see probably one of the greatest bands of our time.
The gig was opened by Chora who were playing weird stringed instruments (I couldn’t see because they were sitting down) which made harsh droning sounds laced with feedback, accompanied by the drummer hitting out random rhythms which only added to the maddening claustrophobia of the music. I felt as if, by listening to this music, someone somewhere was laughing at me, such was the ponderous and pretentious nature of it. But then something happened about halfway through and the drummer started battering out mind blowingly good tribal beats and jazz fills which brought the crescendo of the (one ‘song’) set to a surprisingly impressive close.
Still, Sonic Youth are who the crowd came to see and as the venue began to burst at the seams with people and the violently strong air conditioning was switched on, Thurston Moore finally entered the stage, nonchalantly stuck a drumstick beneath his guitar’s strings and began to make sweet wonderful noise as the rest of the band emerged. I was grinning like a maniac, stunned to see the legends themselves performing in such an intimate venue. And from the openers of ‘She Is Not Alone’ and ‘Bull In The Heather’, the gig just got better and better. The sound for a start was great; Steve Shelley’s drums retaining a bassy pump to ensure that all the screeching noise still grooved. ‘Hey Joni’ from their seminal and best know album, Daydream Nation, brought up the expectation of more of the ‘good old stuff’ and Sonic Youth didn’t disappoint, playing ‘Tom Violence’ from Evol and two more Daydream Nation classics; ‘The Sprawl’ which was majestically hallucinatory and ‘Cross The Breeze’ which was so aggressive and heavy that it’s hard to believe that each member of the band is pushing (or has pushed) 50. ‘Schizophrenia’ from Sister was also aired and was probably the highlight of my night but I won’t mar it with hyperbole or metaphors; it’s just a fucking amazing song. The hit single ‘Kool Thing’ closed the set with bassist Kim Gordon’s mildly bitter introduction of “When we come back you’ll know all the new songs so we won’t have to play these old one’s” Suffice to say it still rocked like hell.
And I might add that the new album The Eternal, sounds like its gonna be awesome too, much like 80% of Sonic Youth’s back catalogue. In fact they didn’t quite play enough of the new stuff for me – where were ‘Incinerate’, ‘Pink Steam’, ‘Diamond Sea’, ‘Rain On Tin’?? Either way it was an incredible performance. I’ve heard that Sonic Youth can be iffy live; choosing to perform feedback for an hour instead of doing any songs but at the Scala they graciously played a career-spanning set with fantastic energy. My ears began to hurt during the gig (and trust me, I know loud; I’ve seen My Bloody Valentine) but it didn’t matter because it was so incredible. Ear damage from Sonic Youth is better than no ear damage I say.
Jerry’s final thought: Thurston Moore hasn’t changed his hairstyle since the early 80s. Is that the key to the brilliance of Sonic Youth? The Samson-like power of Moore’s mop?
A once in a lifetime experience and well worth the admittedly obscene amount of money I paid for my ticket.
Scala, Kings Cross, London, 19.25pm: Blue skied evening, toothless touts and a diverse crowd lined up round the block to see probably one of the greatest bands of our time.
The gig was opened by Chora who were playing weird stringed instruments (I couldn’t see because they were sitting down) which made harsh droning sounds laced with feedback, accompanied by the drummer hitting out random rhythms which only added to the maddening claustrophobia of the music. I felt as if, by listening to this music, someone somewhere was laughing at me, such was the ponderous and pretentious nature of it. But then something happened about halfway through and the drummer started battering out mind blowingly good tribal beats and jazz fills which brought the crescendo of the (one ‘song’) set to a surprisingly impressive close.
Still, Sonic Youth are who the crowd came to see and as the venue began to burst at the seams with people and the violently strong air conditioning was switched on, Thurston Moore finally entered the stage, nonchalantly stuck a drumstick beneath his guitar’s strings and began to make sweet wonderful noise as the rest of the band emerged. I was grinning like a maniac, stunned to see the legends themselves performing in such an intimate venue. And from the openers of ‘She Is Not Alone’ and ‘Bull In The Heather’, the gig just got better and better. The sound for a start was great; Steve Shelley’s drums retaining a bassy pump to ensure that all the screeching noise still grooved. ‘Hey Joni’ from their seminal and best know album, Daydream Nation, brought up the expectation of more of the ‘good old stuff’ and Sonic Youth didn’t disappoint, playing ‘Tom Violence’ from Evol and two more Daydream Nation classics; ‘The Sprawl’ which was majestically hallucinatory and ‘Cross The Breeze’ which was so aggressive and heavy that it’s hard to believe that each member of the band is pushing (or has pushed) 50. ‘Schizophrenia’ from Sister was also aired and was probably the highlight of my night but I won’t mar it with hyperbole or metaphors; it’s just a fucking amazing song. The hit single ‘Kool Thing’ closed the set with bassist Kim Gordon’s mildly bitter introduction of “When we come back you’ll know all the new songs so we won’t have to play these old one’s” Suffice to say it still rocked like hell.
And I might add that the new album The Eternal, sounds like its gonna be awesome too, much like 80% of Sonic Youth’s back catalogue. In fact they didn’t quite play enough of the new stuff for me – where were ‘Incinerate’, ‘Pink Steam’, ‘Diamond Sea’, ‘Rain On Tin’?? Either way it was an incredible performance. I’ve heard that Sonic Youth can be iffy live; choosing to perform feedback for an hour instead of doing any songs but at the Scala they graciously played a career-spanning set with fantastic energy. My ears began to hurt during the gig (and trust me, I know loud; I’ve seen My Bloody Valentine) but it didn’t matter because it was so incredible. Ear damage from Sonic Youth is better than no ear damage I say.
Jerry’s final thought: Thurston Moore hasn’t changed his hairstyle since the early 80s. Is that the key to the brilliance of Sonic Youth? The Samson-like power of Moore’s mop?
A once in a lifetime experience and well worth the admittedly obscene amount of money I paid for my ticket.
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