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Sonic Youth Performing Daydream Nation Berkeley Community Theatre Part of a series called Dont Look Back that originated in London with The Stooges performing Funhouse in its entirety back in 2005, Dont Look Back invites bands to perform one of their classic albums from start to finish.
In July, Sonic Youth opened to a packed high school auditorium to perform 1988s Daydream Nation. The Berkeley Auditorium is located on the North side of the Berkeley High School campus. Features include a carpeted entryway, faded pale blue velveteen seats, and two long walkways down to the stage on either side. The legendary art punk New Yorkers sauntered out on stage in single file order, and Lee Ranaldo, Kim Gordon, and Thurston Moore (joined by drummer Steve Shelley) picked up their instruments; it was a hilariously memorable and somewhat surreal visual image with the high school auditorium backdrop.
For a full 71 minutes, they droned, plucked, winced, whined, pounded and soared in perfect tonal brilliance to the tune of their late 80s masterpiece. Played live, the album is amazingly diverse even while the songs totally gel and morph from one to the next. Forget about understanding the lyrics, the feature of the night was the perfectly orchestrated and yet somehow happenstance organic noise of the album, that sounds groundbreaking and a little pissed off even today. The show was immensely enjoyable and even during the dull moments, when the static and distortion warbled on a little too long and the performers stood stock still staring down at their guitars, there was something unpredictable about what might be about to happen next. Sonic Youth continued to majestically deliver the goods. After some commentary from Moore about how out of whack the school system must be to let Sonic Youth perform there, they did two full encores, covering material from their latest and engaging album Rather Ripped, along with a spattering of tunes from Sonic Nurse. Very satisfying stuff, but it was Daydream Nation that reminded me most of what it was like to be sixteen-years-old in 1988. Vanessa Arce |
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