post-teenage riot

So I went to see Sonic Youth perform Daydream Nation last night. I hadn't seen them since 1990, when I went to a free show at the Columbus Street Tower Records (RIP), and they passed out free donuts to the audience. But you know what? They've still got it.

Which I was a little surprised about, because I'd gone back and listened to Daydream Nation in preparation for the show, and it hadn't seem that legendary anymore. Sure, there were still a few great songs -- "Hey Joni," "Total Trash," "Teenage Riot," "Kissability," four is more than a lot of albums have -- but there was a lot of tracks that were just moody and murky and laid there. But dang if they didn't sound way better live. Kim told me later -- yes, later, backstage! -- that when they'd agreed to play the record en toto they'd all gone back and listened to their parts and kind of hated how crappily they'd been played and recorded. So I think they took a lot of time to work them out to where they liked them. Reminded me of what David Lowery said about the Camper reunion: that they -- or at least Jonathan, boy, that Lowery is a prick -- were all way better players than they were the first time around.

Anyway, Camille and I arrived late and missed a couple tunes. So I turned to the humongous, goateed guy standing next to us and asked how long they'd been playing. He just put his hand to his lips and shhhhed me. O-kay. So Camille turned to the swaying girl next to her and asked, but she just mumbled something about incoherent. Right, suddenly I got it. Everyone was super high. Which made sense, because I'd sort of forgotten that Sonic Youth was a jam band. They even have a new song called "Jams Run Free," which sounded like the Allman Brothers a bit. In a good way.

I also sort of forgot that SY is a metal band, or at least alternametal. Remember how all those bands like Jane's Addiction and Screaming Trees had a big metal crossover crowd? There was some serious headbanging going on. Dig.

Ha ha. Dig. Anyway, the encore was made up of songs I'd never heard before, which turned out to be on the new album, Rather Ripped. The funny thing was that they all sounded like Pavement songs. Seriously. How fucking cool is that? Especially since when they'd been playing "Total Trash" I'd thought, "Fuck, Pavement based their whole early career on this one riff/guitar sound." And there was Mark Ibold, the one-time Pavementboy, playing bass. It got me really excited for the Pavement reunion, whenever that comes about.


So afterwards we got to go backstage. You can read why here. I met Kim and Thurston (who looks a lot like my dad now, he's filled out but still looks about 30) and Coco. As Jerry Harrison lurked nearby, we talked about my dad, who they said they really loved. Thurston also said he seemed like the kind of guy whose bad side you didn't want to be on. Could that be any cooler? The raddest couple in rock is a little bit afraid of my dad.

Anyway, here's some more Grumpy Guy. This one's for my dad, who says he hates the more sexual ones...