We sent correspondent and Silverlake resident Russell Sanzgiri out to cover Sonic Youth for us this weekend. We learned how much he despises commercialization and Urban Outfitters.
I can’t say I was terribly excited to check out Sonic Youth Saturday night at the 3rd Street Promenade (an outdoor shopping mall) in Santa Monica. For starters, the performance was at an Urban Outfitters store. Second, it was sponsored by Toyota. Finally, a friend had told me that the previous night’s show, of Daydream Nation in its entirety, wasn’t entirely thrilling.
On this evening, however, Sonic Youth were in top form. Providing the audience with a sampling of their deconstructionist sound, the band pulled from their oeuvre recent track “Incinerate” from last year’s Rather Ripped, the Lee Ranaldo helmed “Skip Tracer,” and classics like “Bull in the Heather.” Kim Gordon broke from her usual “I’m gonna kick your ass” glare to do her best Nancy Sinatra pony dance. Thurston Moore took the time to joke with the crowd about the new Harry Potter book and how “[Sonic Youth] had been meaning to perform on the Promenade for some time.”
The evening’s unusual venue had to do with the event being sponsored by Toyota and its Free Yr Radio program, a marketing campaign designed to support non-commercial radio and, I’m sure, sell a few Yarises. Saturday’s show benefited local college radio station KXLU, who will celebrate their 50th anniversary of being on-air later this year. Opening the show was Jimmy Tamborello aka DNTEL (aka the half of the Postal Service who isn’t Ben Gibbard). Tamborello is himself a former KXLU DJ.
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