The Eternal (Sonic) Youth

By J Howell

Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO
July 18, 2009

On some level, it must be hard being one of the most influential bands of the last thirty years. It goes without saying that at this point Sonic Youth is definitely that. Having (almost unbelievably) never seen them prior to their stop at the Uptown for the Eternal tour, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Sure, I’d heard stories about how raucous their sets were, about mind-numbing feedback, and about how in recent years their shows had become more beautiful than pummeling. Somehow, their performance turned out to be simultaneously everything and nothing I’d expected it to be.

Photo © 2009 J Howell

Unfortunately, I missed most of opening act Awesome Color’s set. I’d seen them once before, and what I saw at the Uptown was more of the same: not bad, but not overwhelming, either. What I caught of their set was raucous and enjoyable, although in all fairness, what I missed may have been amazing. And the singer did finish their last song in a pretty spectacular way, holding a small Vox combo amp against his guitar in a stunning blast of extended feedback.

After a quick tear-down of Awesome Color’s gear, Sonic Youth took the stage to massive applause and began their set with “Tom Violence,” which was exactly what I was hoping for: Sonic Youth being Sonic Youth. Noisy, abrasive, hypnotic and beautiful. After the opening song, Lee Ranaldo said they were going to play some new songs, and he hoped we didn’t mind. From that point, they played almost all of The Eternal.

Here’s where their set became the everything/nothing of my expectations. Though I understand fully that touring for their new record meant they’d be playing material from said record, I was hoping there would be more early-to-mid-career songs in their set. I’m sure part of that desire stems from the fact that I was at junior high/high school age when I first heard them, so of course I was hoping to hear some Sonic jams from those formative years. Sadly for me, they played few songs from the late-80s to mid-90s period.

Which is not to say their set was in any way lackluster. In fact, far from it. Sonic Youth played beautifully, sometimes ferociously, and throughout the show they sounded amazing. The house volume was perfect—something many lesser bands seem to often get wrong. They were exactly the right volume, not as earplug-requiringly loud as I’d expected, but loud enough to get their Sonic Youth “thing” going on.

It’s a little tricky to explain, though if you’ve seen SY before you probably already know what I’m talking about, and I’m sure it probably traces back to Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore’s early days performing in Glenn Branca’s multiple-guitars-with-every-string-tuned-to-the-same-note orchestra. Part of it is their odd tunings and part of it is sheer volume and a little bit of feedback, but—especially during songs when Ranaldo, Moore, and Kim Gordon were playing guitar, with former Pavement bassist Mark Ibold holding down the low end— when SY really gets going, a strange and beautiful psychoacoustic thing happens: overtones blend in the air and you start hearing things that really aren’t there.

When this happens in Branca’s music, it’s usually terrifyingly unsettling, but when Sonic Youth does it, it’s absolutely gorgeous, like hearing the voices of distorted angels in your head in the midst of a maelstrom of sound outside, and it will absolutely make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It’s kind of spooky but sublime. Steve Shelley’s drumming is sadly often overlooked in such a guitar-oriented band, which is a shame as he was brilliant the entire night.

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