The Paris show, a hallucinatory journey through much of the band’s past and present, proves that even as mature artists the band’s explorations remain youthful.This clip from Weatherman ‘69-shot and directed by the band’s SST Records comrade and eventual art world fixture Raymond Pettibon-remains a shining document of Sonic Youth’s anarchic era on that L.A. The continued relevancy of SY is a sign not only of their royal position in the independent rock canon, but to the lasting power of their music. Gordon’s driving bass and Shelley’s precise drumming formed the rhythmic basis of most compositions while the layered sounds issuing forth from Moore and Ranaldo’s guitars reverberated, at times, like machines on the blink. Skull” (Evol) gave even the most cursory fan a familiar sound to thrash and sway to. Songs such as the crowd-pleaser “Teenage Riot” (Daydream Nation), a seductive but cold “Shadow of a Doubt” (Evol) sung by Gordon, a spaced-out “Sugar Cane” (Dirty), “Schizophrenia” (Sister) and “Expressway To Yr. Lee Ranaldo sang a pretty “Karen Koltrane” and a soulful “Hoarfrost,” the latter of which brought the show to near rapture. It was unusual in that Sonic Youth treated the 2,500-odd Parisians that filled the balconies and throbbed in unison to a stroll down memory lane.Īctor’s Strike: SAG-AFTRA Releases List of Proposals and Studios’ Counterproposals Not for the blend of space-age, psychedelic, art-core that SY fans are accustomed to, since they surely delivered that. Nothing new from the band who branded electric noise music while many in the audience were still suckling the tTtTs of their maman.īut for those who have been following Sonic Youth’s tours of past years, this one was unusual.

Drummer Steve Shelley has exited stage left to leave his fellow band members to their introspective experimentation. Kim Gordon, in a multi-layered white dress with a ragged hem, coaxes weird sounds out of her pedals and whispers echoey poetry into her microphone.

Thurston Moore, a tower of rangy limbs, plays his guitar with a drumstick, amplified by a My First Sony toy microphone. Lee Ranaldo, drags his guitar across the floor, wrenching strings. Inside MutualitT, a theater in the fifth arrondissement, Sonic Youth are finishing up the last song of their sold-out show.

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