[noumenal]

The only SY show I've ever been to was on 6/21/03 at Bogart's in Cincinnati. I was living in Nashville at the time and so I took a road trip by myself up to Ohio. The drive took four hours and I listened to SY the entire trip.

I don't remember the setlist. There were several songs from Murray St. And Making the Nature Scene was particularly awesome. I also remember Thurston playing Peace Attack in an embryonic form. It was pretty loud, but not insanely loud. I remember thinking that the bass was too loud.

On the drive back, I stopped and got some Cincinnati chili because I'm a big chili fan and wanted to try Cincinnati's unique take. I sat in my beat-up Chevy Blazer and ate chili and then drove home.

I'm a big fan of the solitary road trip. In 2001, I drove from Nashville to Panama City, FLA and listened to Radiohead and Genesis most of the trip. I took pictures of random Dairy Queens and shit like that. However, my two trips from Savannah to Baton Rouge and back this past year were not very fun. That is too far to drive by yourself.

[marleypumpkin]

I also heard bad mixing at the show I saw. You couldn't hear Kim, Lee, or Thurston's vocals.

[Sheriff Rhys Chatham]

Originally Posted by soapbars

i saw sonic youth semptember 2004 brixton academy

setlist as i remember:

i love you golden blue
pattern recognition
peace attack
m.c. and the arthur doyle hand cream
erics trip
teenage riot
new hampshire
pacific coast highway
paper cup exit
expressway to yr skull (i remember this lasting around 40 minutes)

im sure they played more but i cant remember,

i remember thurston climbing up onto the speakers and was swinging this guitar around in front of them for about 10 minutes, it was great,

we broke down on the drive home and had to sleep in a service station,

that sounds a lot like the 04 portland me. show I went to. Expressway was completely awesome.

[krastian]

Nice stories.

[mikec]

Sorry this turned out so long. Read the first 2 and last 2 paragraphs if you only want to read about sonic youth. The rest are other bands I saw with them.

I've had the pleasure of seeing Sonic Youth twice. First time was 8/11/04 in DC at the 9:30 Club on the Sonic Nurse tour. The opening bands were putrid. Yes, I said putrid. One band called Magic Markers I think. It was 30 minutes of white noise, that's all I remember about them. Then came a band called White Magic (notice a theme?). Again, pretty bad. Just completely forgettable, indie pop type band, I don't even know what it was. I do know I would've gladly welcomed fingernails scraped across a chalkboard than listen to the girl singer.

So I'm nervous as hell. I get nervous a lot for some reason when I'm seeing bands I love for the first time. Finally the band walks out and go right into Pattern Recognition and the rest was a night I won't forget. The band was so spot on. Thurston and Lee were just going out of their minds doing god knows what with their guitars. Kim was doing her thing, dancing around on stage. I can't quite remember everything they played but there are some setlists on this thread from the Sonic Nurse tour that look about right to me, give or take a few songs that were changed. PCH, Eric's Trip, Schizophrenia, Teenage Riot, Disconnection Notice, Empty Page and a bunch of others were all excellent. Just an incredible set and the band lived up to all my expectations and more.

Originally Posted by Kegmama

Alex's Trip- There were quite a few of us from the board at that show... Arthurfest was 2 days later. Did you see them then too?! The San Diego HOB show was actually kind of weak in comparison to their perfromance at Arthurfest, but both nights were fucking excellent! SY is like the best live band ever.

Hey, I was at Arthurfest too. The band was awesome but the sound was the worst I'd heard in a long time. Here's my review.

2nd time I saw them was at Arthurfest last August. It took place at Barnyard park which was this huge arts and music park. Very nice, with a breeze and picturesque setting overlooking the city. When I walked in, I was a little surprised because security didn't even ask for my ticket so I walked right in. I missed a lot of the festival already so I decided to head straight for the main stage to get a good spot where Sonic Youth was headlining and the excellent Sleater Kinney was right before them.

I got there just as this band called Sunburned Hand of the Man was beginning. About 9-10 scruffy, middle aged gentleman walked on stage with everything from a trumpet to synthesizer to tambourines in addition to the guitar-bass-drums setup. The next 45 minutes was basically a random clusterfuck of noises. I wanted to take a drill and off myself at times. Sure I appreciate pushing the musical envelope but this was a little too much. things got interesting when the props came out. some guy comes out of nowhere and takes this wooden staff and raises it over his head in some sort of proclamation. Then he goes down to the 1 st row of the crowd and randomly shoves the mic into everyone's faces at which on cue, people take turns screaming. He then does a handstand on stage. Got it? Ok, gets more interesting. He takes out a naked baby doll and starts caressing and holding it and petting it. Another 30 minutes of this bizarre behavior and at the end I'm clapping and shouting for an encore. Crazy...

The set change before the Black Keys came on was uh, interesting. It was basically a handful of stupid indie kids/snobs arguing like jackholes over who was standing where and why tall people were standing in the front and blah blah blah endless bullshit jabbering.

The Black Keys were up. Forget the White Stripes, these guys are the real deal. They play a tight brand of bluesy rock n roll. And rock they did. The guitarist was all over the stage, dishing out some awesome guitar riffs. The drummer reminded me of Dave Grohl the way he was punishing his drumset. They played a solid 45 minute set and got a great reaction from the crowd. Nicely done.

Well the next set change for Sleater Kinney only took about 20 minutes but we ended up waiting for 45 long minutes for whatever reason. It was very packed now and people were pushing their way through and grabbing spots left and right.

So the band finally walks out, starting with the fox off their awesome new record the Woods. Playing close an hour, they played mostly new material with a few oldies thrown in. I thought they had best set of the day. The band was rocking out hard, playing very loud and very big. No surprise they got a big reaction from the crowd. Janet was bashing the drums big time, Corin was jumping around doing kicks and ripping off solos while Carrie carried most of the vocals. I was very impressed with the band as this was my first time seeing them. Unfortunately for us, Sleater Kinney and Sonic Youth who were to follow, the sound guys decided to take the rest of the night off. The first few songs, you couldn't really hear Carrie unless you were in the first few rows. The bass was also much too loud. You could tell the band was getting pissed off now. But they played on and ended up playing a fantastic set anyways.

The next set change took even longer, over an hour because they were showing a short film. On top of the fact that everybody was waiting very impatiently for sonic youth, the film was horrible. I don't even know how to describe it other than it was like watching the video in "the Ring" with these random trippy, freaky, bizarre images with muffled narration. I thought some girl was going to come out of the screen and start eating the audience, speaking of which if that film had gone on another few minutes, I was going to start killing random audience members. Yes sir.

The film ends after constant moans and groans from the audience and finally, after a 1 hour wait the band is ready to come out. Sonic youth comes out to thunderous applause. So after that long setup what happens? You couldn't hear vocals. Again. The bass was too loud. Again. The crowd was complaing and ready to kill the sound guys. Again. Not discounting the bands performance because it was once again energetic and awe inspiring but this was hands down the worst sound I'd heard by any band in the last few years and that sentiment was shared throughout the crowd. There were lots of starts and stops and kim especially looked frustrated as she at one point couldn't play the bass anymore and traded off with Jim. I was getting pissed because the band looked on tonight. The energy and the spark was still there. Thurston seemed the most unfazed and seemed to be urging the band to play on. He was definitely in a playful mood that night, pouring a bottle of water over himself and then attacking one of the roadies and horsing around while still playing his guitar! Lee also jumped into the crowd and let people mess around with his guitar. Awesome guy. I was surprised at how aggressive the LA crowd was, not that I'm particularly averse to that. The DC crowd for my 1st sonic youth show weren't having any dancing or movement at all but here a small mosh pit opened up during Teenage Riot and some others. Funniest moment I’ll remember about this show. This sweaty, fat guy near the front center started doing these strange, writhing motions with his hand, I don't know if he was in a seizure or what. Then as Thurston was finishing playing, he'd then start pointing at Thurston and start vigorously nodding his head in this insane measure of approval. Funniest thing I'd seen in a long time. They played pretty much the same set from the sonic nurse tour with highlights being Mote, Schizoprenia, pacific coast highway, teenage riot, empty page, stones, and pattern recognition.

I can’t honestly say this was the best show I’d ever seen because of the sound problems and I’m probably skipping the next Arthurfest unless they pull out a killer lineup. But regardless, it was a good show overall. Black Keys and Sleater Kinney for the first time were a real treat, that Sunburned band with the baby doll caressing was insane, and Sonic Youth, despite the sound problems, still turning in one hell of a performance.

[krastian]

Originally Posted by mikec

I've had the pleasure of seeing Sonic Youth twice. First time was 8/11/04 in DC at the 9:30 Club on the Sonic Nurse tour. The opening bands were putrid. Yes, I said putrid. One band called Magic Markers I think. It was 30 minutes of white noise, that's all I remember about them. Then came a band called White Magic (notice a theme?). Again, pretty bad. Just completely forgettable, indie pop type band, I don't even know what it was. I do know I would've gladly welcomed fingernails scraped across a chalkboard than listen to the girl singer.

Yo....I was there....I got Thurston's set list . I agree the Magick Markers are pretty bad, but people on here seem to love them. I'm pretty sure they didn't play Teenage Riot though.

[whorefrost]

#4 ATP 04 / Camber Sands.
The whole weekend was immense but Sonic Youth curated Saturday was particularly special. They had the Jerk on TV which we watched while eating pizza and drinking beer. Black Dice slayed me. I was amazed. After their set I walked in a straight line to the merch room and bought three of their records. Then I went and caught the end of Dream Aktion Unit. Along with Black Dice, Wolf Eyes were the highlight of the weekend for me. These were two bands that were getting a lot of underground hype at that time and I was eager to see them. Seeing them, I decided that the hype was not unwarranted. What I mean to say is Wolf Eyes were shredding like fuck.
Vincent Gallo sucked. I later met him and Kim Gordon and shook their respective hands.
Sonic Youth were good. The only thing was, not having heard Nurse, the new material sounded too similar to Murray Street. Having had my horizons exploded by Black Dice and Wolf Eyes, SY were treading too familiar territory at that point in time. Their set was good and all... it just seemed like more of the same to me at that point... I remember thurston slapping his guitar with his lead and Kim looking pissed off at him.
The next day, my friend and I were hanging outside the merchandise room, waiting for it to open when suddenly this tall guy emerged, towering over us. It was thurston. We stared at him, dumbfounded. He looked back at us for a few seconds then vanished.

SET LIST
Love You Golden Blue
Empty Page
Unmade Bed
Stones
Plastic Sun
Pattern Recognition
Mote
New Hampshire
Paper Cup Exit
Dude Ranch Nurse
White Kross
Drunken Butterfly
--
Rain on Tin
Mariah Carey & The Arthur Doyle Hand Cream

[whorefrost]

#5 Amsterdam Paradiso 2004
OK, Nurse is out and I'm totally digging it, despite being somewhat underwhelmed by SY's ATP appearance. Me and my friends decide to catch SY in Amsterdam, spending a few days there. It turned out to be a great little holiday, culminating in the SY gig on the final night.
Plenty of smoking and drinking. On the first day, my friend passed out, falling face first onto the pavement and chipping his tooth.
SY gig was sweet although we were standing quite far back and I was pretty stoned and kept getting spurts of paranoia. Intensely noisy, long set. Thurston scaling the balcony and offering his glass of wine to some chick in the audience. The band seemed somewhat subdued in some respects.. Lee and Thurston seemed a little drunk and/or stoned... cool night although I was a bit out of it... of course it was delightful to see PCH and Expressway live

I Love You Golden Blue
Stones
Pattern Recognition
Unmade Bed
Eric's Trip
Mariah Carey
Teenage Riot
New Hampshire
Paper Cup Exit
Peace Attack
Dude Ranch Nurse
Brother James
--
PCH
Expressway

[whorefrost]

#6 The last SY gig I attended was right here in Scotland at Glasgow Barrowlands in this foul year of our lord 2004. It was actually a few days after the Amsterdam gig and I was feeling a lot more refreshed / sober. The band seemed more energetic and overall it was a tighter performance. Also, it was a smaller venue and I was closer to the front which definitely helps. I think this gig is up there with Manchester as one of my favourites. The only bummer was the drachonian licensing laws in Glasgow which meant no endless encore of expressway... still, excellent show... Decaer Pinga were cool as well...

I Love You Golden Blue
Stones
Pattern Recognition
Unmade Bed
Karenology
New Hampshire
Mariah Carey
White Kross
Rain on Tin
Dude Ranch Nurse
Paper Cup Exit
Kool Thing
--
PCH

[marleypumpkin]

"Drunk &/or stoned"

I was just thinking that a couple of days ago. We all know that SY used to blaze (just watch 1991 TYPB & you'll see), but do they still blaze ganja?
Lee has a child now, & Kim & Thurston have had Coco for a while, so I'm wondering if they still blaze.

[whorefrost]

probably not all that often but when yr in amsterdam you pretty much have to

[whorefrost]

in JRNLS 80s, Lee talks about them doing cocaine... apparently there is footage of this in the EVOL tour documentary.. (whatever happened to that btw)

[marleypumpkin]

& having kids isn't making things easy for them, so I imagine once & a while they roll up a big splif. Speaking of splifs & TYPB, that has to be my favorite scene in that whole movie. Where Kim hands Dave that huge joint after taking a drag. I fucking love SY!

[marleypumpkin]

Originally Posted by whorefrost

in JRNLS 80s, Lee talks about them doing cocaine... apparently there is footage of this in the EVOL tour documentary.. (whatever happened to that btw)

SY just doesn't look like they'd use hardcore drugs, but I can definetly see it happening. I do hope they've stopped doing coke though. I can't stand that shit.

[whorefrost]

Sy uses drugs! shit! I love them for that!

[marleypumpkin]

"Rock CREATED Drugs!"
-Sam Kinison

[mikec]

Originally Posted by krastian

Yo....I was there....I got Thurston's set list . I agree the Magick Markers are pretty bad, but people on here seem to love them. I'm pretty sure they didn't play Teenage Riot though.

Really? I could've sworn they played that. Wanna check that setlist for me just to make sure?

[marleypumpkin]

Yep, they sure did play "Teenage Riot" at the show I saw.
Just look for yourself
(set-list from The Orange Peel show, 8/20/04)

 

(photo by D.Sound)

[krastian]

Originally Posted by mikec

Really? I could've sworn they played that. Wanna check that setlist for me just to make sure?

Sure. I'm holding it in my hand and it's not on there. You can check out the details for the show in the Sonic Youth Concert Chronology PEACE.

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/sytour.html

[mikec]

Originally Posted by krastian

Sure. I'm holding it in my hand and it's not on there. You can check out the details for the show in the Sonic Youth Concert Chronology PEACE.

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/sytour.html

the hell? ok, so i was convincing myself they played teenage riot when they didn't? ah well, at least i know they did it at arthurfest.....i hope someone can confirm that at least so i know i'm not losing my memory