Sonic Youth at First Avenue
What do you say about a band who, at 29 years of age, is putting out some of its strongest work yet? Are they this generation’s Rolling Stones? Better than the Rolling Stones? Sonic Youth helped birth alternative music and its '90s juggernaut of an offshoot, grunge, and then became one of the few bands to survive it intact—never having to regroup, reassemble, or go on a dreaded reunion tour to try to increase cashflow. It keeps creating, pushing a buzzy, feedback-filled envelope to its brink. Even now it keeps searching for new sounds where other bands would settle for what's already known.
At First Avenue on Tuesday night, Sonic Youth proved why it's still here and revered, one would guess based on size of the crowd, by nearly everyone who likes music. With the exception of Kim Gordon’s vintage, shimmery silver dress, and the light banks on either side of the stage, there was little dress-up. The show is... there is no show. The rest of the band wore jeans and unironic shirts, and everyone possessed a socially acceptable haircut. They played a 90-minutes-plus, two-encore set that never sagged, dragged, or felt forced. The songs are born from feedback, but all have bursts of melody that inexplicably draw you in; they make you want to fall recklessly in love and destroy your possessions at the same time. Although the set was dominated by songs from Sonic Youth's most recent release, The Eternal, it was astonishing how little this felt like a cheat. There was no yearning for “Kool Thing” or “100%”—at the end, the band left the audience hungry only for more of this newness, for whatever was next—not what was great a dozen years ago. That was, and always has been, Sonic Youth's greatest feat.
Opening band Awesome Color
Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley
Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore
Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon
Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore
Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon7
Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon
