On Sunday I went up to San Francisco again to see Sonic Youth. This time it happened to be at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium because they were opening for Pearl Jam. I went with my friend Capri and we had a pretty good time.

We were a bit late because of my fantastic navigation skills around the streets of SF. Sonic Youth was already playing when we got inside. They sounded great to me, of course. We opted for finding seats in the balcony somewhere because neither of us are particularly huge Pearl Jam fans and we knew sitting would be nicer than standing the whole show. Our view ended up being about even with the right side of the stage. I actually think it was a really cool angle. We could see everything happening on stage from above.

Sonic Youth still played many tracks from their new release even when in the opening slot. They didn’t opt for the popular hits that the crowd may have known. It must be so difficult for a band to be playing with another band who has a huge following when their sounds are not the same at all. There was one guy who shouted out during “Or”: This fucking sucks! Maybe he was drunk already.

Since we were late I didn’t get the whole setlist written down. I haven’t been able to find it online yet, either. That might be a good thing because then I can’t be disappointed by what I might have missed. Here’s what I got:

–
100%
What a Waste
Mote
Do You Believe in Rapture?
Jams Run Free
Pink Steam
Or

Even though it was short for me, it was still a treat.

As for Pearl Jam, they played pretty well. The only stuff I’m familiar with comes from their first three albums and there was a fair amount of it. It was really interesting hearing “Garden” from Ten. I didn’t expect to hear that at all. The highlight for me was probably seeing “Better Man” because Ed didn’t even sing the entire first verse–he left it up to the crowd who filled in very nicely.

I had tickets to the Tuesday night show, but I decided not to go because getting up there on a weeknight would be a hassle, and I had already seen them. I found a friend who needed tickets for his sister so I wasn’t stranded with $120 worth of tickets on my hands either.

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