Last night I went up to San Francisco to see Sonic Youth at the Fillmore. They snuck in a solo show before the shows with Pearl Jam in the next few days. I was really happy about that. They played for close to two hours–much longer than they probably will play when opening for PJ.

On the Sonic Nurse tour I was pleased to realize that Sonic Youth will never become a touring “Greatest Hits” band. They played all but one track off of that record during that show. Last night they played every new song off of the new record, Rather Ripped. I thought it was quite a treat. The few other songs they played were exciting too. The ending of “Pattern Recognition” was long and furious and quite lovely. “Expressway to Yr Skull” was unexpected but very welcome. I love how they made it just kind of disintegrate on itself.

I started taking note of the setlist about halfway through with memos on my phone. This is what I got down, anyway:

Incinerate
Reena
(I Got a) Catholic Block
Pattern Recognition
Do You Believe in Rapture?
Eric’s Trip
What a Waste
Sleepin’ Around
Jams Run Free
Rats
Turquoise Boy
Pink Steam
Or
–
Lights Out
Shaking Hell
–
The Neutral
Expressway to Yr Skull

technorati tags: sonicyouth, fillmore, sanfrancisco, music, liveshows