Northampton 4/30 Review

[kracked873]

Last Night was the most amazing night of my life. Got to the Show at around 8 just in time for Sebadoh to hit the stage. Was right Up Front in the Front Standing area for Sebadoh. Then everyone was told to sit down and we were front row for J/Deep Wound and Sonic Youth. Sebadoh was soo great, they played tons of Bakesale Songs and other greats i only didnt know about 5 songs. Jason Lowenstien and Lou Sang about and equal amount of songs, good stuff. Then J hit the stage, he played 5 songs from the two solo albums and some great dinosaur classics. Before he played Little Fury Things he was like "This next Song Lee Ranaldo sang with me on the album, i forgot to ask him to come up and sing it with me" then Lee Came out and they did Little Fury with Lee on his backups. J Had a great flute player on stage with him for a few songs and they did NEVER BOUGHT IT with her on the flute part, i was so suprised cause im pretty positive J hasnt played that in years. Then they also did Thumb with the flute part. It was so great. After J’s Set Lou and the other two members of Deep Wound came out and J hit the Drums and they busted out a rocking song. Then Sonic Youth hit the stage and played mostly brand new material with a few old Classics. All the New songs were great. This was prolly the best Concert Ive ever witnessed in all my years. I videotaped it. Got all of Sebadoh and J then my battery was dying but i got a little Sonic Youth Footage Not all of it. Checking out the Video right now, came out real good, i’m willing to spread the video. Biggest of Thanks to Annastefka who bought me my ticket, also thanks to Flying Cloud who purchased a Ticket for my best friend Meagan. Great People like this are only found on the J mascis Forum. You guys are great and if you want a copy Id gladly send them out for yas. Heres the setlists to the Three bands i saw, dont know the names of most of the new Sonic Youth Songs but I certainly know all the J Songs and Most of the Sebadohs..

Sebadoh:
Careful, Lisence to Confuse, Rebound, Got It, Magnets Coil, Shit Soup, Skull, Freed Pig, Soul + Fire, Flame

J:
Someone Said, So What Else is New, Flying Cloud, Set Us Free, Same Day, Ammaring, Little Fury Things (with Lee Ranaldo doing his back up vocals), If that’s How It’s Gotta Be, Never Bought It, Get Me, Not You Again, Thumb, Alone

Deep Wound Reunion

Sonic Youth:

i love you golden blue, the empty page, unmade bed, stones, pattern recognition, mote, new hampshire, paper cup exit, dude ranch nurse, drunken butterfly

Encore: rain on tin, mariah carey and the arthur conan doyle hand cream

Greatest Show Ever. Thanks so much to Everyone and Everything

-Pete

[fata morgana]

It’s great you had a good time–who wouldn’t with such an amazing line up!

[Mike456]

Easily the best show I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

[slimetrail]

Same here. Hey, everyone who was videotaping the show: Could you please post it soon? I’m dyin’ here! If anyone got the Sonic Youth performance, too, I’d kill for that…

[jcows]

wooooohooooo. just getting back to burlington, vt from last night’s "experience"; which happened to be religious. glad to see it got taped. thanks Pete! i saw a few red lights along the balcony edge, were one of those from your camera? hopefully those others will also be so generous to share their recordings here or @ anthony’s site. and anthony, i was chillin with your cousin! i was happy to run into a few friends from the college days who came out of the blue. dino fans are the best. so loyal. twas a beautiful show. cheers to the northampton crew, props to Pop-a-Wheelie, who put us up and put up with us.
-jimi

[Anthony]

so aaron was in the house??
i tried so hard to get in contact with him. that sucks i didnt get to see him.

you probably saw my red light up on the balcony.
i was able to get righteous video from the second floor of J’s entire set, and the first couple from Sonic Youth.
believe me, im going to try to get it out as soon as i can.

we counted at least ten video cameras, so some people got some really, really good footage friday night.

take care

[FlyingCloud]

thanks a lot for the reviews & setlists, guys! And of course it’s great to know that there are some decent recordings, thanks thanks thanks!!!

more reviews, setlists and some great pics are to find here:
here’s what happened in northampton

[Anthony]

Deep Wound – Video Prick
20 MB, AVI, Divx format.
not the best quality, this file will be replaced with a better version sometime soon.

[ammaringnyc]

Anyone get audio of sebadoh or could you extract the audio from the video. Its a shame I wasn’t there to make them play soulmate and brand new love, and the freed pig.

[kracked873]

they did play freed pig, forgot toput that in the setlist..time for an edit haha

[FlyingCloud]

thanks a lot for the advance bit, anthony!!!

it’s so so very great to see J & Lou rock together! And J was really pounding the drums, no wonder he was afraid to get some brain damage from being a drummer :aliensmile:
great balcony perspective, looking forward to the rest of the material! also cool to know there’s other video material from a different angle… from which side you were recording, kracked?
…I think I could hardly get enough footage of this great event

I compared the Deep Wound song with the DW mp3’s I have, and the song they did sounds most similar to "Video Prick" to me, but I’m not good at that. I’d be curious what you others think which Deep Wound song it is

[lethrneck4]

great to hear a lot of people taped the show, i was there also and it was awesome! loved how sebadoh used the boom box for all the drums in their songs, huge turnout too, the place was packed. me and my buddies got good seats up in the balcony. Sebadoh were awesome, playin mostly Bakesale songs, which is one of my fav albums. J kicked ass too, whenever he kicked on the fuzz, it was LOUD! never even thought Deep Wound would play, i was hopin for a Dinosaur Jr reunion all night, but seein Lou and J play together was good enough. Lou even commented during Sebadohs’ set how he was happy to share the stage with his musical brother, J Mascis, again (although he said this right after he played The Freed Pig!). Sonic Youth also were very good, some great new songs, not a lot of old ones, as usual, although they played Mote and Drunken Butterfly. at one point, someone yelled out for them to play Kill Yr. Idols, and Thurston sarcasticly said, "No, were all grown up now.", which was kinda funny yet sad to hear him say, but i guess we all gotta grow up sometime. anyway, it truly was one of the best shows ive ever been too. im leaving my email address below for Kracked873 or anyone else who has a video of the show and would like to trade. later

[email protected]

[FlyingCloud]

ah, anthony, now I see you called the file ‘Video Prick’ … good to see I was right on that

thanks for the review, Lethrneck4! it all sounds quite like a once in a lifetime event or so… jealous! 🙂

[Bucky Ramone]

Review (concentrating mostly on the Sonic Youth set) from ‘the Republican’ (masslive.com)

Sonic Youth’s new works a hit
Monday, May 03, 2004
By PHILIP D’AMOUR
Music writer

NORTHAMPTON – A thoroughly sold out crowd of music fans at Smith College’s John M. Greene Hall supported two great causes Friday night.
Though ticket buyers knew that all proceeds to the six-hour rock event went to the Community Resources for People with Autism organization, they didn’t know that they would also help Sonic Youth test out several of its new songs.

Indeed, local heroes Sonic Youth headlined the benefit, sharing the bill with J Mascis, Sebadoh, Claudia Malibu, Lo Fine, Steve Westfield and the Lonesome Brothers, and The Chemical Wedding.

Actually, Sonic Youth’s 90-minute set almost didn’t happen. Thurston Moore’s guitar seemed to break after he tossed it to the ground after just a couple of songs. But several minutes later, the guitar was up and running for the band’s feedback drenched set.

Taking the opportunity to practice its new songs, the band, which includes members who live in Northampton, played several tracks off its upcoming June 8 release "Sonic Nurse" including "Unmade Bed" and "Parent Permission."

Sonic Youth’s music certainly has mellowed a bit over the years, but it hasn’t lost any of its edge. Another new song, "Paper Cup Exit" began in a dreamy sonic haze before opening up into a tough, but beautiful aural powerhouse.

Ironically, this is a band that predates Nirvana, but don’t call them "Sonic Middle Age." The group is very aware of its aging rocker status. In fact one member joked, "There’s a lot of baby sitters working tonight!"

But nobody felt old listening to "Dude Ranch Nurse" another new track on the cerebral rockers’ anticipated release. After 10 songs, the band exited the stage leaving fans wanting more.

And they got more. Sonic Youth returned for an encore, including the new song "Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream," but it was the guitar epic encore "Rain On Tin" from 2002’s "Murray Street" that truly stole the show. "Tin" was a perfect example of what Sonic Youth does best. They showered the crowd with a torrent of clean musicality before slapping them with sonic booms of pure rock noise.

Fellow indie rocker J Mascis, former frontman for the trio Dinosaur Jr., preceded Sonic Youth with his own 50-minute set of short, but sweet underground rock songs, including "Freedom" and "Set Us Free" from his 2002 release "Free So Free."

Like Sonic Youth before him, Mascis has mellowed since the louder days of Dinosaur Jr., but there’s still plenty of angst in his Neil Youngish warble and plenty of heat in his punk influenced guitar riffs to keep him going for a long time still as heard on "If That’s How It’s Gotta Be" also from "Free So Free."

But J Mascis wasn’t the only Dinosaur Jr. member to perform Friday night. Bassist Lou Barlow’s band Sebadoh performed a 55-minute set of fine lo-fi rock before Mascis that included, "Nothing Like You" from 1996’s "Harmacy," and "Good Things" from 1992’s "Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock," as well as "License to Confuse" and "Rebound" from 1994’s "Bakesale."

[Bucky Ramone]

Review from the Soundcheck weblog on masslive.com

Saturday, May 01, 2004
Today this is my livejournal
And by that I mean this entry will be full of grammatical and punctuation errors. Deal.

Oh if only John M. Greene Hall had this technology for last night’s show (the Autism benefit at Smith College with Sonic Youth, J. Mascis, Sebadoh, Steve Westfield and the Lonesome Brothers, Lo Fine, Claudia Malibu and Chemical Wedding – did I get them all?), because it was a great experience I wouldn’t mind repeating. It wasn’t about any single performance, but the whole atmosphere was full of intimate moments, like when Lou Barlow’s mom introduced Sebadoh onto the stage and Lou said "Thanks, Mom" (she was so proud of her son, you could tell) or when Official Ambassador of the Fire Code, Steve Westfield came onstage between acts to make sure people had cleared the aisles. Or when Lee Ranaldo joined J. Mascis onstage for his last song. Or when, after J. Mascis’ set, Lou and J. reunited with their high school band Deep Wound to play the most rockingest 2 minutes since I had gotten there (I regret to inform you that I missed Lo Fine and Claudia Malibu’s sets).

Sonic Youth played a lot of their new material for their upcoming release Sonic Nurse (June 8, 2004). Thurston Moore, in classic ADHD manner, broke his guitar after only their first song and it took a few minutes to get fixed. Some of the new tunes were ‘Unmade Bed’ and ‘Dude Ranch Nurse,’ which is extremely funny to me, because ‘Dude Ranch Nurse’ is the name of a nurse book. Anyway, they dedicated ‘Dude Ranch,’ – it’s about the evil George W. – to Dennis Kucinich, who they saw speak the last time they were at JM Greene Hall.

With the live Sonic Nurse songs, the band seems to be heading back to an earlier Sonic Youth sound, as opposed to following Murray Street a little further, uh, down the road (oh my). From Murray Street, SY played ‘Empty Page’ and ‘Rain on Tin.’ Other songs were the always-enjoyable Drunken Butterfly from Dirty. They ended their encore with ‘Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream’ (another new one).

For the image-conscious, (I was pretty far back from the stage, so this is an approximation) Kim Gordon was sporting a silky white halter top (I think she was wearing a diamond-studded broach or necklace, too) with a casual (jean?) skirt and high heels, of course. There are always high heels.

I may have pictures up soon, although they didn’t turn out all that well. Except for J. Mascis. The camera looooved J. Mascis for some reason

[Author]

Posts