From Boston to Austin: ACL 2010: The Strokes and Sonic Youth

Monday, October 4, 2010

ACL 2010: The Strokes and Sonic Youth - Anticipation and Nostalgia

I recently saw a thread on a discussion forum in the official ACL 2010 website about which single band you are looking forward to seeing. With little hesitation, I settled on The Strokes. For one thing, the NYC quintet has been getting lots of positive reviews for their recent performances. Also, Rachel and I have seen them once before, but is was a pretty long time ago (2001). Seeing a band after a ten-year gap should be interesting. Can the 2011 Strokes compete with the somewhat-scruffy kids from 2001? My memories of the first show are subject to the effects of time, but I look forward to comparing the two gigs.

Hard to blame the 2011 version if they do end up being inferior to the 2001 Strokes. That band, at least live, was a rush of energy. It had great material -- pretty much only great material, as the only music they had put out at the time was a great EP and the now-classic Is This It. To be honest, if you asked me to name one or a small handful of concert moment that converted me to a live music junkie -- you know, those times where you're in the crowd and the music doesn't just take over your ears but the rest of your body, and for that moment you'd rather be nowhere else -- I'd quickly blurt out the 2001 Strokes gig at the Webster Theater in Hartford, CT, the 1990 Sonic Youth show in Boston, maybe seeing R.E.M. and Throwing Muses back at the beginning of college, and maybe one or two other shows if I could shake them from my increasingly clogged memory banks.

That first Strokes show, at the Webster Theater in Hartford, CT, was memorable. The band was still just starting to get buzz in the states. Think about it, if they had been getting buzz for a while already, would they bother stopping in Hartford? With little more than an album's worth of material, the band came storming out like five spark plugs and played with an amazing amount of energy. Julian did his best Iggy/Morrison/Reed, sipping long necks throughout. Albert Hammond looked like his arm might fly off strumming during "Last Night" and "The Modern Age." The audience bought in from the get go. Those in the crowd seemed aware that they were witnessing a band that wouldn't be stopping at the Webster next time they toured the area.

The band quickly ripped through all of Is This It, including "New York City Cops," then called it a night. In one economical hour, though, they made a lasting impression. After unrealistic expectations that few bands could live up to, a slow fade and a short "hiatus," the band members seems to have the side project bug out of their systems. The Strokes are back. Be glad, ACL goers, be glad.

If you want to talk bands that I've seen once a long time ago, Sonic Youth beats The Strokes by over a decade. That show was back in October 1990 (Orpheum Theater, Boston MA, Goo Tour). My roommate, who got me into Sonic Youth, got us tickets. Our tickets were actually back in the theater, which is pretty big, but by waiting outside long enough we managed to trade our tickets plus 5 or 10 dollars each for second row, center aisle tickets.

The show just blew me away. I hadn't seen anything like that before. Sure, I've loud bands like some of the old hardcore stalwarts or classic arena bands, but nobody put out the energy that Sonic Youth did that night. The crowd was terrible at first, and I'm not even talking about when they heckled openers Redd Kross like they were the Yankees. It was several songs in before anyone else up front stood up, and people actually complained about the three of us doing so. Once the band was in full gear though, everyone was up.

Anyway, many years later (2003), my wife and I got tickets to go see the odd pairing of Sonic Youth and Wilco in Wallingford, CT. Sonic Youth pulled out late. In 2009, they were on the ACL bill. They were forced to cancel due to injury. So now, nearly 20 years to the day, Sonic Youth is here for ACL. The band is a bit different now. Sonically, I'd say they've embraced the grey in their locks. Somehow the group matured and slowed down while staying powerful and relevant. So Rachel and I doubled down and got tickets to their aftershow as well. I'm pumped. Please, Sonic Youth, don't get heat stroke or eat bad tacos before the weekend!