Sonic Youth - Roundhouse, London, 1/9/2007
by Dominic B. Simpson
published: 28 / 9 / 2007
intro
In the iconic recently opened venue of the Roundhouse in London, Dominic Simpson watches Sonic Youth in a 'Don't Look Back' show give a dynamic and forceful perfomance of their classic 1988 album, 'Daydream Nation'
Despite its paucity of toilets – at least with the gents, anyway - the Roundhouse is a glorious venue, a circular auditorium with a huge cathedral-like apparatus lifting up the roof. Famous in the 60's for hosting the likes of Cream, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix and Pink Floyd, it’s certainly got its place in rock history. Since its reopening, it’s featured a mix of current music, dance and theatre. So it’s somewhat ironic that a venue famous for big names in 60’s and 70’s rock should host a band whose career has been predicated on destroying and reinventing in brazen fashion the lineage of classic rock. Sonic Youth’s early career trajectory saw them begin deeply embedded in downtown New York’s late 70’s / early 80’s alternative arts and music scene, one which prioritised innovation over technique, and freeform atonality over melody. The grime and dirt of 70’s New York, reeling under the city’s financial bankrupt state and crime, in some ways affected the music of the ‘No Wave’ scene of bands such as Mars, Lydia Lunch’s Teenage Jesus and The Jerks, DNA, and James Chance, all of which were (and still are) difficult and challenging listening; it can also be seen imprinted in Sonic Youth’s dark, volatile early music, with the ‘Confusion Is Sex’ album full of imagery of body mutilation (“take of your mask, take off your flesh”) and anorexia. Despite the brilliance of albums such as ‘Bad Moon Rising’, ‘Evol’, and ‘Sister’, the band's 1988 classic ‘Daydream Nation’, which the group are at the Roundhouse to perform tonight, is still held up as their classic, however – a sprawling double-album that expertly synthesised the atonal, detuned and challenging aspects of their early work with a pop sensibility that would continue with subsequent albums ‘Goo’ and ‘Dirty’. Sonic Youth since then have continued to juggle official releases with the more difficult tendencies of their side-albums, the ‘SYR’ series, thus appealing to both the purists and casual fans. First, though, are Sutcliffe Jugend, an industrial noise duo featuring ex-members of UK controversialists Whitehouse, among others. Taking the stage to blanket sheet metal noise, the singer yells indecipherable abuse at the audience in various poses, at one point affirming “Who’s the DADDY???” It’s painfully loud, and somewhat anachronistic in such a swank venue, but fits Sonic Youth’s policy of choosing obscure support slots. The venue itself, however, appears less than happy, cutting off their set ten minutes before they are due to finish. The duo storm off, enraged. This concert being part of the ‘Don’t Look Back’ series organised by All Tomorrow’s Parties, in which bands’ play classic albums chronologically from start to end, the audience know exactly what to expect when the band take the stage – a fact that has fuelled detractors of the 'Don't Look Back' series, who claim that it fossilises albums, treating them as dead ‘artworks’. In any case, though, when the opening notes of ‘Teenage Riot’ ring out, you can’t help but be swayed. The following hour and a half are near perfect: from the mid-breakdown of 'Silver Rocket', in which the song like an elastic wire being pulled back, losing all sense of rhythm and melody, before the band slowly bring it back to it’s original state (very much a Sonic Youth motif); the drifting guitar oceans of ‘The Sprawl’ and ‘Cross The Breeze’; Lee Ranaldo’s vocal take on the freaked-out ‘Hey Joni’ and ‘Eric’s Trip’; the playful ‘Total Trash’....they even have a sample on hand for ‘Providence’, so that the instrumental track’s lakes of guitar noise and answering machine message are played exactly as on record. It’s played perfectly, and as the band finish with the abrupt ending to the album’s famed ‘Trilogy’ and exit the stage, you wonder what they will do next as they slope off stage. Eventually they return, with Ranaldo quipping “from the last century to the present”, and run through recent tracks, including from their latest, ‘Sonic Nurse’. But what makes things really special is the inclusion of a ‘Confusion Is Sex’-era track, ‘Shaking Hell’, right at the end. In just over two hours, the band have made the connection between their beginnings and their current state, some 25 years later, while detouring into the middle stage of their career along the way. You couldn’t really ask for more.
Band Links:-
http://sonicyouth.com/https://www.facebook.com/sonicyouth/
https://twitter.com/thesonicyouth
Picture Gallery:-
interviews |
Interview with Steve Shelley (2004) |
Remaining constantly inventive, Sonic Youth are soon to release their nineteenth album, 'Sonic Nurse'. Mark Rowland talks to drummer Steve Shelley about its creation,and their recent turn as curators at the All Tomorrow's Parties alternative rock festiva |
live reviews |
Capital Music Hall, Ottawa, 6/8/2004 |
Sonic Youth recently played Ottawa as part of their current world tour. While not as overwhelming as their reputation would suggest, Andrew Carver still finds them able to play a " very coo" show |
Live at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, |
favourite album |
Daydream Nation (2007) |
Jon Rogers looks at Sonic Youth's 1988 opus 'Daydream Nation'which has just been re-released with both additional songs and a whole extra disc of live versions of the album |
Daydream Nation (2002) |
features |
Sonic Youth 'EVOL' and 'Sister' (2011) |
In our ‘Soundtrack of Our Lives’ column, in which our writers reflect upon music that has had a personal impact on them, Jon Rogers writes of Sonic Youth’s 1986 and 1987 albums, ‘EVOL’ and ‘Sister’ |
Reissues (2006) |
soundcloud
reviews |
Smart Bar-Chicago 1985 (2013) |
Forceful and raw live album from Sonic Youth, recorded at a 1985 Chicago club gig, which will be of appeal only to hardened fans |
Simon Werner A Disparu (2011) |
The Destroyed Room (2007) |
Rather Ripped (2006) |
Goo (2005) |
Sonic Nurse (2004) |
Dirty (2003) |
most viewed articles
current edition
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities - #15- On Being Dignified and Old aka Ten Tips From Jah Wobble On How To Be Happy.Dennis Tufano - Copernicus Center, Chicago, 19/7/2024
Elliott Murphy - Interview
Wreckless Eric - Interview
Adrian Gurvitz - Interview
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities - #16: Living in the Minds of Strangers
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities - #17: Tom Robinson
Norman Rodger - Interview
Chris Spedding - Interview
Penumbra - Interview
previous editions
Heavenly - P.U.N.K. Girl EPIn Dreams Begin Responsibilities - #5 - ‘We all have good intentions/ But all with strings attached’: Music and Mental Health Part 2
Trudie Myerscough-Harris - Interview
Allan Clarke - Interview
Dwina Gibb - Interview
Joy Division - The Image That Made Me Weep
Beautiful South - Ten Songs That Made Me Love...
Madeline Bell - Interview
Jimmy Nail - Interview
Sound - Interview with Bi Marshall Part 1
most viewed reviews
current edition
Groovy Uncle - Making ExcusesBill Wyman - Drive My Car
Hawkestrel - Chaos Rocks
Philip Parfitt - The Dark Light
Ross Couper Band - The Homeroad
Deep Purple - =1
Jules Winchester - The Journey
Popstar - Obscene
Splashgirl and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe - More Human
John Murry and Michael Timmins - A Little Bit of Grace and Decay
related articles |
Thurston Moore: Live Review (2014 |
At the intimate Bodega in Nottingham, Anthony Strutt watches ex-Sonic Youth front man Thurston Moore, with Ride's Mark Gardener as support, play an intense but versatile set |
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart