She doesn't think at all about the past

Dear friends,

Thanks to the largesse of a friend, I was at the Sonic Youth show at McCarren on Saturday. If you want details go read this gent's more in-depth take*.

Dispassion is a respected rock reaction around these parts, don't cha know? I do think the Brooklynites were psyched though. It was a strange sort of psyched though, like they couldn't let themselves go for fear of outing their long dormant geekdom. So while they kept their arms crossed, their eyes glowed like lumps of burning coal as they mouthed the words to all the songs; little prayers directed at themselves. I was saucer-eyed mostly; staring at the bits of Thurston Moore's ageless face visible through his trademark floppy hairdo, red/orange stagelight filtering through. At the end of Teenage Riot, he walked over to his amp and slowly slid the neck of his guitar on the edge. It was workman-like, that action. The seemingly insignificant bit that's a necessary part of the job.

I'd never heard Hey Joni live and it was the song that won me. I loved the hurried harmonic touches and of course, Lee Ranaldo's repeated lines about forgetting the future, forgetting the past and putting it all behind you.

Hey Joni/Sonic Youth (mp3)

Buy Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth.

Love, D

* I hadn't realized but MP chose Hey Joni as a standout as well AND he's got a live version you can download! Excellent. (Rubs paws together.)