The Liars are on early so I only catch the last three songs of their set, all of which are enough to convince me that their quirky hardcore punk is worth investigating further. Shades of Birthday Party, Pere Ubu and SY's own 'Death Valley 69' are apparent, and hopefully I'll get the chance to check them out properly soon.
The Notwist are a band who have been around for years, but they became press darlings earlier this year with the release of their album 'Neon Golden'. They used to get lumped in with Stereolab and the US post-rock bands, but their recent material sits comfortably alongside the recent Radiohead releases. I hadn't heard very much of their material before tonight, and I was impressed without being blown away.
Thankfully I had heard SY's week-old album 'Murray Street' before the show as I'm a Sonic Youth veteran and I know that a show near an album release date means that album features extensively!
Having said that they follow the trend of their show here two years ago by opening with a song from 'Daydream Nation' - this time it's 'Candle', a welcome old favourite but also one that fits the reflective mood of 'Murray Street'. In fact so does the second song 'Shadow of a Doubt', another lost oldie still sounding as good as ever.
'The Empty Page' is the first taste of the new material and it's immediately impressive. Jim O'Rourke is now established as a full member of the band and his taste for melodic, slightly folky guitar lines has brought a freshness to SY. 'Bull in the Heather' (from the overlooked 'Experimental Jetset' album) is given a new lease of life, as is the classic 'White Kross' which is the main energy rush of the set and a reminder that three guitars can be a very good thing!
'Disconnection Notice' brings us back to 'Murray Street' and Lee comes to the fore for 'Karen revisited' which I'm sure he introduces as 'Karenology'. This song comes across as a continuation from 'NYC Ghosts and Flowers' and is the only real hint that 'Murray St' is the rumoured second part of a trilogy which 'NYC Ghosts' began. It's one of the catchier new tunes and the extended meandering guitar outro is familiar SY territory.
Equally familiar is Kim's great 'Kissability', another 'Daydream Nation' song and a chance for Kim to be the frontwoman for a few minutes. A great version of 'Skip Tracer' follows and then it's the new stuff until the end. 'Plastic Sun' is familiar Kim-led abrasiveness, 'Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style' is Thurston's customary pretentious title but a helluva good tune even without the skronky horn section, and 'Sympathy for the Strawberry' sort of winds the set down to a mesmerising finale.
They save the best of the new album for the encore though, as 'Rain on Tin' is really wonderful, perfectly integrating O'Rourke's influences into the Sonic Youth sound. As soon as they had finished their delicate guitar interplay I would've been quite happy for them to come out and do it all again!
I'm not disappointed though as one of my favourite SY songs begins the second encore - 'Eric's Trip' - and 'Drunken Butterfly' is an oddly uptempo conclusion to a fascinating show.
SONIC YOUTH
London Shepherds Bush Empire 2nd July 2000
Obviously anxious after poor reviews of their headlining show at All
Tomorrows Parties, Sonic Youth seem to have changed their set substantially.
Reports of their recent US dates with Stereolab have praised the mix of new
and old songs, and coupled with the impressive new album 'NYC Ghosts and
Flowers', they've easily sold out two nights at this huge old theatre. No
mean feat when you remember that tonight is also the final of Euro 2000!
I had embarked on a mission to get home without hearing the score, a plan
ruined when Thurston Moore bounded on to the stage to announce that France
had won the game. The small cheer that greets this is soon drowned by the
reaction that meets the surprise choice of 'Teenage Riot' as the opening
song. A bit of a fuck-you to the people who said they had forsaken the old
material. It's a tremendous version, helped along by temporary fifth member
Jim O'Rourke on extra guitar (as if they needed that!), and it ends up with
Thurston on his back pummeling his guitar with his feet. For all the recent
jibes about Sonic Youth being an inappropriate band name for this bunch,
Thurston at least still looks like an oversized kid!
They go even further back into their back catalogue for 'Brother James'
next, and then delve into one of the many highlights from the new album
'Free City Rhymes' complete with an even more extended noise work out at the
end. There's another surprise with the inclusion of 'Kool Thing' as
O'Rourke plays bass so that Kim can do some dancing!
Things calm down after this lively start with a lot of material from the new album.
It's certainly my favourite Sonic Youth album for a long time, and the likes of 'Small
Flowers Crack Conrete', Kim's experimental 'Side2Side' and the almost pop 'Nevermind
(What was it Anyway)' all hit the spot.
Following on from the recent pop of 'Sunday', and the blow out of 'Mote', Lee's tour de
force 'NYC Ghosts and Flowers' is a remarkable close to the set. Sonic Youth were always at their best when they mixed NY street poetry with cathartic guitar noise and this is no exception.
They may have alienated a lot of the fans they picked up in the 'Goo' era, especially with the recent noise work on their own Sonic Youth Records (SYR), but tonight showed that they are able to balance the experimental with a twisted sense of pop. The encores show thetwo disparite sides of the band. An extended freeform 'Lightnin' complete with trumpet (!) bizarrely precedes '100%', one of the singles from 'Dirty'. Keeping all of their fanbase happy isn't an easy job, but they did it with some style tonight.
