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Although we’d just seen SONIC YOUTH last month in New York (review here), I was still excited about this show for a variety of different reasons. First off, it was super cheap, with a ticket price of $6.75. Also, it was an opportunity to see them in a club less than half of the size of the venue they usually play here in Philadelphia as compared to the large, outdoor venues I’d seen them at the 3 previous times I’ve seen them play live. Additionally, in typical Sonic Youth fashion, there was a great opener and one who could’ve easily headlined this venue on their own. The show was sponsored by Converse, which is probably how they could get away with the low ticket prices and also probably why such disparate bands were on the bill, though I’m not sure about that last part.
Nevertheless, Sonic Youth were terrific despite playing virtually the same setlist as they played last month. As my fiancee remarked after the show, they really need to teach bassist MARK IBOLD some new songs. They also seemed a bit underrehearsed (by their own admission), especially early on. However, when they launched into 5 songs in a row from Daydream Nation after debuting two great but shaky sounding and as-yet-untitled new songs, none of that mattered. Simply put, it’s a religious experience to see songs like “The Sprawl, ”’Cross the Breeze” and 2/3 of “Trilogy” (specifically “The Wonder” and “Hyperstation”) played live. LEE RANALDO was also represented with “Hey Joni” and “Eric’s Trip”. And yes, they still play these songs better than they did last year when they actually did all of Daydream Nation in its entirety. It seems that playing some of these songs live for the first time in years has helped them make these songs into live staples.
After the Daydream Nation heavy main set, we got several encores. The first consisted of “100%” and “Pink Steam” from 2006’s excellent Rather Ripped and the second consisted of a mind-melting, at least 10-minute (though I wasn’t counting) version of “Expressway to Yr Skull”. Overall the set was only about an hour and twenty minutes. They have so much material and thus could’ve played longer, but we left satisfied and ultimately that’s the most important thing.
Although it was the 3rd time we’d seen THE HOLD STEADY in the last 2 months, this was my favorite of those times because once again, it’s such a completely different experience hearing them in a club than at a big, outdoor show. They played a short, 40-minute opening set that focused mostly on their new album Stay Positive and got the crowd so excited that they yelled out for an encore. It wasn’t to be, however, and Sonic Youth ended up taking the stage about half an hour later.
The above photos were taken by JEFF LOUELLA and are used with permission. You can see more of his photos here.
