Sonic Youth Rocked Pitchfork
Pitchfork Day One featured Slint, GZA, and Sonic Youth performing their respective classic albums. I'm not sure I liked the album format better than the usual set format, but I do see the benefits of it. Unfortunately, I got there late so I missed the post-rock soft-loud dynamic head*fuckery of Slint and their performance of "Spiderland". I also missed the GZA, which I'm really kicking myself for doing. I wonder how out-of-place he felt sandwiched between two giants of experimental rock. Anyway, taking the L into Union Park, I saw part of the GZA crowd leaving just as quite a few people were arriving late to see Sonic Youth. Thankfully, I was treated to about as energetic performance as I could expect from 40-50something-year-olds, which is not a slight on them at all. They really tested the limits of Pitchfork's sound system. Btw, Pitchfork, the sound booth in the middle of the field? Way too close and obtrusive...bad idea.
I had no idea about Kim's age, but she looks good for 54. I was amazed at how she rhythmically threw her head around and wielded her gigantic guitar churning noisy, chunky riffs. I just knew that if she lost her balance at all with that thing, she was totally gonna tumble over. During one song took Steve's drumstick and banged out noisy bar chord riffs, a nice visual and sonic treat. My favorite moments were of course "Teen Age Riot", "Candle", and the orgasmic finale of "Trilogy" (Kim was really getting into that one). I'm not sure what tuning 'Daydream Nation' is in. Sonic Youth often change guitars instead of retuning, and they switched guitars for their encore, where they performed "Incinerate", "Reena", and "Jams Run Free", off their 2006 LP 'Rather Ripped'. The funniest request from the crowd was "Now play 'Sister', all of it!". I wish they could have stayed to play a few more, like "Tunic" or their mindblowing cover of Karen Carpenter's "Superstar". All in all however, it was a great performance.
Slint- Breadcrumb Trail Slint - Washer Slint - Nosferatu Man (MP3) GZA - 4th Chamber Sonic Youth - Superstar (MP3) Sonic Youth - Teen Age Riot Sonic Youth - CandleLabels: hip-hop, indie rock, mp3
DJMonsterMo | 10:54 AM | 
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