Favorite Sonic Youth Bootlegs for No Bells List of Lists 2024
I knew of Sonic Youth. Fender Jazzmasters, pals with Kurt Cobain, “Homerpalooza,” some kind of old New York, “Teen Age Riot,” alt-rock it couple until they weren’t. I knew them as an important band that broke up when I was in high school. But Kim Gordon’s aptitude with rage beats on her new album The Collective made me curious about her old band. I clicked on the recently reissued Walls Have Ears and heard a cacophony reminiscent of Miles Davis’ electric period. And like Davis, Sonic Youth were widely bootlegged by real heads who recognized the raw power of an endlessly evolving ensemble.
I tend to approach new-to-me bands like an overager student, dutifully referencing rankings and reviews for the consensus favorite album then moving on to the deep cuts. For Sonic Youth, I tried something different. Guided by Tyler Wilcox’s Doom and Gloom from the Tomb, I listened to nothing but live performances, hopping haphazardly across the decades ignorant of track titles and lineup shifts. Sonic Youth soon became one of my favorite bands, and I spent hours this year pinned to their wall of sound. It was freeing.
Gordon once said that playing bass was merely “a byproduct of wanting to make something exciting.” (Bass players can relate.) But her low end anchored the band in a sense of abandon inherited from The Stooges, The Velvets, and Funkadelic. Sonic Youth left behind three decades of interesting music, and though I never got to see them myself, I can hear their influence any night of the week in Chicago whenever some adventurer conjures up a punishing level of noise in a small club.
Drum Logos, Fukuoka, Japan 2001
U4, Vienna, Austria 1989
Smart Bar, Chicago 1985
Campo Pequeno Lisbon, Portugal 1993
Rockpalast, Dusseldorf, Germany 1996
Double Door, Chicago 2006
Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, California 1995
Fowlers Live, Adelaide, Australia 2008
Hold That Tiger Metro, Chicago 1987
From The Basement Maida Vale, London, UK 2007