Sonic Youth and the Hold Steady, 8/29/08

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

This was my first Sonic Youth show after liking them for a long time, and it definitely won't be my last. They opened with two songs they only wrote the other day and packed the set list with a lot of deep tracks from Daydream Nation. The sound quality in the TLA was a bit too muddy for my taste, but the band still sounded great. I was up in the balcony, so I didn't have as good a view as I'd hoped to, but the show was as attention-grabbing visually as it was in terms of sound. Footage of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young from a documentary of the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival flashed in the background, with swirls of blue and green lights. It was a cool juxtaposition to SY's far-from-folk performance.

 

The Hold Steady also put on a great set. I've heard about them a lot here and on another board I frequent, but I hadn't gotten around to checking them out yet. They're a fun, energetic live band, and that makes me want to go buy one of their CDs.

 

The show was sponsored by Converse as part of their Converse Century concert series. While I was waiting in line to get in, a guy from Converse came up and gave me a wristband to meet the band before the show because I just happened to be wearing my Chucks. It was a really quick autograph line up in the balcony while the Hold Steady was playing their first song, but it was still really cool to smile and say thank you to them (except to Kim, since she didn't look up the whole time) and to get an autographed poster:

 

 

The set list:

 

No Way (new song)

Mars (new song)

Bull in the Heather

The Sprawl

Cross the Breeze

Hey Joni

The Wonder

Hyperstation

Drunken Butterfly

Eric's Trip

Jams Run Free

Pink Stream

 

100%

Making the Nature Scene

 

Expressway to Yr Skull

[Oil Can Boyd]

Cross the Breeze

Might be my favorite Sonic Youth song.