Last night was my 3rd time seeing SY on tour in support of Rather Ripped this year. Maybe because of that or because I was behind tall people the whole show, I wasn’t entirely blown away.

The openers were way out there. The Skaters played one song for 20 minutes. It seemed like guitar fuzz only to me, but I actually enjoyed it. 16 Bitch Pile-Up was a bit different. They played mostly tape loops and effects boxes. Jeff (a fellow MLIS student that went with me) said he thought they sounded amateurish. He’s a fan of experimental music like I am, but I do see his point. Some of the clicks and pops and scratchy noises didn’t seem like there was much thought put in to them. They did have some really great sounds toward the end of their set though, mostly when the music became full and loud.

The crowd absolutely hated this band. I’ve never heard nastier things being shouted at people on stage before. I wish Sonic Youth knew how the crowd reacted to the noise and then threw the same stuff at them. I’m always up for a half an hour or more of feedback from them. They actually seemed to do a little less of that this time. “Teenage Riot” had a long outro of guitar drones, but there wasn’t much else in the set.

The set with a few annotations:

Candle (great surprise as an opener)
Incinerate
Reena
Eric’s Trip (I would’ve liked to see another Lee song since I’ve seen this 3 times)
Do You Believe in Rapture?
What a Waste
The World Looks Red (what a treat!)
The Neutral
Rats
Jams Run Free
Pink Steam (the best of the new songs played, this song rocks)
Or
———
Turquoise Boy
Teenage Riot (the crowd went wild, it was great to hear)
———
Lights Out
Shaking Hell

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