Sonic Youth is proud of where it stands. After each new album, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Steve Shelley and Lee Ranaldo tend to stick to recent material live. And why shouldn't they? Sonic Youth is a class act on stage, no matter the set list.
But perhaps in the spirit of the All Tomorrow's Parties "Don't Look Back" series — in which bands at the New York music festival play classic albums in their entirety — Sonic Youth spent its ATP concert ripping through the songs that make it Sonic Youth to so many of its fans. Not one song recorded beyond Daydream Nation was played in the set heard here (and recorded Sept. 4). And while Dirty, Washing Machine and even the misunderstood NYC Ghosts & Flowers are great, the noisy side of Sonic Youth induces pure rock catharsis, with sidewalk grime beaten into four-string guitars and wrenched in Kim Gordon's howl
Special thanks to WFMU for the recording of these ATP concerts. For more information, visit wfmu.org.
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