Everyone content? After basking in the furore surrounding Daydream Nation’s three-night residency at The Roundhouse at the tail-end of last week, few could call to question Sonic Youth’s decision to perform at the ATP-affiliated Don't Look Back event. Financial incentives aside, the opportunity to laud the 1988-released record as seminal and perform to an audience as wide as it was at their peak is an opportunity to re-expose themselves in a way that under any other circumstances would be unlikely. But for all the plaudits that the New York noiseniks acquired off the back of the performances it calls into question the peculiar appetite with which these events are lapped up. All things considered, should these records really be victim to such nostalgia-ridden retrospectives? Is there not a better way that these records can be celebrated?
There is obviously a demand for these types of show but why that is remains to be seen. The best guess is that with ticket prices bloated like never before people want a guarantee that 'the hits' are going to be peddled and merchandise desires satisfied. Whilst Sonic Youth continue to sell out similarly-sized venues when they perform 'normally' there seems an increasing focus around creating something regarding a 'Teen Age Riot' 'moment' on performances and these recitals provide people with the structure they desire. Long gone is unpredictable energy, everyone wants to know how many hours to purchase for the car park. Fair enough, everyone wants to punch a loose-limbed fist to a certain track, but does this over-sentimentality not get in the way of the new music and generally blunt the erratic point live music is meant to provide? It calls into question whether senses are being dulled. Are people being engaged with new music, seeking acts inspired by those with the reborn status, because of these sorts of events or do shutters close and people retreat into the cosiness of their bona fide classics? Has this added a sense of occasion to the new Thurston Moore record?
Perhaps we're all taking this too seriously. Who cares if Gang of Four want to distance the concepts that originally held Entertainment! together to perform it in its entirety? If the act are willing to perform then why get so pent up? "In the age of the iPod where people pick and choose tracks, Don't Look Back encourages fans to preserve the album as an art form, listened to, as the artist intended," states ATP head honcho Barry Hogan. Though it isn't really the way that the artist originally intended. These events require people to stand back and admire them as one-off spectacles but are increasingly becoming the bona fide article. So, are these comfortably nostalgic repertoires taking too much of a centre stage?
DiScuss...
No
.
As someone who wasnt born untill 1990
Im glad they did this show because its the closest thing that I could possibly get to seeing them in their prime years.
When they played their newer material during these shows, I didn't like it half as much, I just dont find anything they've done post A Thousand Leaves as interesting. And in their "actual" gigs, they play a LOT from their lastest album, which i dont want to hear. I basicly want to see the long gone Sonic Youth.
Granted I am being impatient, or greedy, in wanting to watch a Sonic Youth show on the condition that I know the members of the band will only play old songs I want to hear. But until the time machine is created and i can go back a decade or two ago, these shows are the next best thing.
However, i am therefore saying the true purpose of these shows as to get money to bands that have gone massively downhill by playing on their fans appreciaton for their earlier material. Which is obviously, not a good thing.
Nuts!
Didnt mean to reply there, oops
They will never be as good as the first time
but if people want to see them then can't really see the problem with them. It could be worse they could be selling a best of through starbucks. Oh.
On a side note why are these events called don't look back? Surely the point of these nostalgia shows is to relive your memories, or am I missing some stupid arty ironic point.
It's just ironic
Commonly known as humour
mate.
bold.
my main problem here is..
if the band is just playing the album, note for note, album production perfect (Slint, i'm looking at you), then in all honesty what is the point? I'll just listen to the album.
However, if like Earth, Neurosis or Bjork to name a few and you constantly update your old songs to fit in with the newer aesthetic and direction then there is a point to the Don't Look Back gigs.
I don't know the only one I've seen is Slint and that was such a massive disappointment.
On this subject
Less Than Jake are playing 6 successive nights at the Astoria 2, and that starts in about a week's time. They're supposed to be playing a different album on each night in its entirity + B-Sides etc.
They still haven't announced what the running order is.
well
sonic youth didn't play it note for note. although the rubbing the guitar on the amp moments did come across as a bit rehearsed.
They were
as they rubbed guitars against their amps on at least two of the nights
sonic youth
have ALWAYS 'rubbed their guitars against their amps.' whether they're playing an album in full or not. its what sonic youth do!
yes exactly
they did the same thing at atp.
my bad
sorry :(
what a load of old horse cock
well, you do make some valid points, but it all comes off as a rather smug and superioristic exercise in hipster self fellation. This part particularly riled me:
"does this over-sentimentality get in the way of the new music and generally blunt the erratic point live music is meant to provide. It calls into question whether senses are being dulled. Are people being engaged with new music, seeking acts inspired by those with the reborn status, because of these sorts of events or do shutters close and people retreat into the cosiness of their bona fide classics?"
I read it as "new music is king, as soon as it becomes established we should stop engaging with it. Come to think of it, how do i know you like it because of what it is? You probably just read about in The Guardian. No, the only way to be a PROPER MUSIC FAN is to be there at the beginning, and preferably state your claim before anyone else has told you how good it is. Seriously, anything too old isn't worth revisiting, go and read Mojo you backwards fuck"
i was born at the beginning of 1989
im 18 (for those slow in the head)
Sonic Youth are my favourite band.
i think its amazing that i saw one of my favourite albums/bands ever, which was written and made before i was even born! such an amazing oppurtunity, and i enjoyed every second of it, including the encore full of mostly new album material, which i also love.
Even though love Murray Street and Sonic Nurse, material from those 2 albums still gets played regularly in recent SY sets, whereas the stuff from Daydream Nation has barely seen the light of day in the last decade, and we also got Shaking Hell on the thursday, which (apart from these special Daydream Nation gigs around the world) has not been played in a very long time.
i made loads of mistakes in that rant
:(
you know what i mean though...
Bollocks.
The guy is trying to stimulate discussion. Notice "Are...or...?"
.
Dont agree with this article. Like a previous poster i was too young to go and see Sonic Youth during Daydream Nation and worried there was certain things of that album i would not get to experience. Perhaps as some people have suggested its not as good as the first time it was done but i dont think thats the case because i didnt know they played albums in their entirety back then. Have bands like Sonic Youth degressed since 1990? I dont think thats the case. I do not consider this to be reliving an "era" its more bringing classic albums up to par during their test of time. Altering the classics is cheating in my opinion. I would rather bands like Sonic Youth and Slint did play these albums in their original form in the live enviroment to leave the legacy and energy of these specific eras in music to inspire bands for another 10-15 years to come.
i predict
that MBV will do a don't look back.
or do some other kind of ATP thing.
DiS
IN LOAD OF SHIT SHOCKER
...
I've seen complete rubbish posted by DiS reviewers, enjoyed it, commented on it, and laughed at the subsequent outrage they've caused.
This though, tops it.
"All things considered, should these records really be victim to such nostalgia-ridden retrospectives?"
If the idea was to create a loaded, ill thought out, biased and ultimately hollow piece in order illicit a response this article is a great success.
Well done.
DLB is valid
DLB is an amazing concept, having seen belle and sebastian perform are you feeling sinister a few years back I was hooked on the concept from then on, Sonic Youth performed daydream nation with as much vigour as I imagine they did 20 yrs ago. Long live DLB I say, as long as they get SFA to do rings around the world sometime soon !!
the last thing i'd ever want to do
is to go to a gig where i knew what the setlist is. i go to gigs for the unexpected - to hear new songs, to hear old nuggets appear out of nowhere. to hear songs performed badly or in the wrong order -to hear songs you maybe didn't like performed brilliantly or changed around in structure. its like going to a football match where you already know the result. its also an admission of failure by the band that their best work is behind them.
the day a band like the fall does a don't look back is a day i eat these words.
My opinion varies, show to show...
...hearing Oceanic re-worked somewhat last summer was excellent.
Slint's Spiderland and Daydream Nation both left me less than thrilled. I enjoyed them, sure. BUT...
Then again, Low's Things We Lost In The Fire DLB was just ace.
a few things here
mike - I really thought you were talking about Oceanic the band for a second and got really excited
demons - the issue with knowing the set list prior to performance (rather then don't look back as a concept specifically).
it's about your relation to this music and the show. if you didn't know the album from start to end intimately you'd still be having the same experience you described. otherwise your issue would be with a band planning any set (irrespective of whether you knew it or not) where you knew what would follow what.
that any forefought on their part (concise or otherwise for that matter) is a reduction of the spontaneity of the live experience.
the follow up to your argument is where do you stop? at which level is a work still divisible (or best presented).
is daydream nation a whole, an entity, or simply an unassociated collection of songs? as a collection does it take on a different meaning, or is it simply an arbitrary ordering.
the second point you make is that playing old material (in this form) without any new material is an admission of failiure by the band. BUT even with a structured ordering it's the band in the here-and-now performing it, one which has developed over the almost two decades since this was written. to say that their performance hasn't been affected by what they've produced since then is to say that they've not developed as people and musicians, and that the performance itself is not capable of expression.
i ask you one more thing. if a band like Sonic Youth were to play a concert where they played a forthcoming album from start to end, of material you didn't know in it's entirity (but others did), would this be a valid exercise?
Stop being such a miserable old bastard
That's my constructive criticism
Sam isn't old!
He's a kiddie. Fiddler.
I'm
with everyone on this issue. It gives those who weren't there an opportunity to hear their favourite records played live.
Also, the 'DLB' tag line about people forgetting the art of the album because of their poxy ipods (well, that's what they meant) I completely agree with. I'd hate for albums to be banished, so these shows are a great reminder of what the world of music was like in the dark ages when we used to sit down and listen to a record in its entirety, and you used to be able to get change from a pound, and so forth.
errr...
... how can you agree with everyone?
passe
I think, this summer will mark the point where Don't Look Back went from being a valid celebration of some great moments in our recent musical heritage to becoming a cliched and washed out revival tour. Sonic Youth have pushed the boat out with turning it into a summer long milking of the cash cow.
That said, I've been to see Sonic Youth and Slint twice during the summer, and to my eyes, Slint were particularly good.
Good point.
I meant 'everyone who has responded to the piece.'
frankly
the only problem I have had personally
after being at the daydream nation gig is that basically most current bands I follow and go to see play live feel like a bunch of musical midgets.
There is something demonic( or evol, more aptly)in witnessing such enormity happening right in front of you,your favourite band playing your favourite record, actually "being" your favourite record in front of you, that is.
I have stayed away from the other don't look back gigs, although I love most of those albums which were performed, because I too am suspicious of the whole operation as I believe in "the moment" and in that moment being unrepeatable.
But I trusted Sonic Youth entirely in making sense of this experience and bringing those songs to life before and with the crowd without any sort of nostalgic temptation ( see the pixies..
that was pure nostalgia, at least for me.)
Indeed, I didn't feel any nostalgia while being there.I was too busy moshing and tripping on the music.
Enough of this now, I am hungover and it took me 20 minutes to write this.yuk.
wow
i didn't know you could write! you should be hungover more often.
I can't write
but I can ramble.
did you know
janet street porter was president of the ramblers association for a few years and is currently a vice president.
that really
doesn't surprise me.
I think
any notion of ideological problems occurring with the "Don't Look Back" series are and can be completely quoshed by incredible shows that either enhance, tangent or otherwise "move" a person, as witnessed on Saturday night at the Roundhouse. Sonic Youth were incredible and with the danger of using a loaded term in this case, I felt a genuine nostalgia from the whole place, ie a child-like happiness. I didn't care that it was an album being performed, it was simply put, great. Ideological discrepancies (if there are any) don't occur when you've got a grin the size of a beachball on your face.
For the record, I hadn't heard Daydream Nation.
Hmm,
I think there's a fine line between some of these gigs and a tribute act. Slint seem to have made a latter day career entirely out of playing back a record that's over 10 years old. How many poeple really want to see that? (Erm, quite a lot apparantly). I went to the B&S one a few years ago and it was okay (they're better musicians now), but there is something a little dull about knowing the bulk of the setlist before a band comes on. And what makes the gigs better than sitting at home listening to the album? I've not been tempted by one since, and mainly because the concept fails to excite me rather than the acts who have played. Also, how many times do you go and see an artist complain because they've stuck rigidly to the new album in some slick marketing ploy?
However, some of the article is just ridiculous. In what way are nostalgic repertoires taking centre stage? If they are isn't it a failing of new music? (and they're just plain not taking centre stage anyway, there were probably 50 new gigs you could've gone to see in London the night of Sonic Youth's performance(s)). And what better way is proposed to celebrate a classic album? The obligatory 2 CD + DVD reissue for 16 pounds? A Q poll?
Also, what's this about:
''Long gone is unpredictable energy, everyone wants to know how many hours to purchase for the car park.''
The ''unpredictable energy'' probably depends entirely on which band you go to see (Tip: New bands not on major labels tend to have more of it), but i'm sure 'everyone' is more interested in how long the queue for the bar is than the queue for some fictional car park!
I was too young...
To see Daydream Nation live the first time round, and this was a great chance to see something I otherwise wouldn't have.
Sueisfine
hopefully we'll be able to hear "Sueisfine" live pretty soon too for the first time!
I agree with some of this
Ironically I went to the Daydream Nation show because Sonic Youth gigs are way too predicatable these days. They have become one of those bands (I'm looking at you Flaming Lips) who's live set consists of the last album, a sprinkling from the one before and the same set of old songs (hits?) from their lengthy back catalogue. With the DLB show I knew they were going to be playing stuff I'd never seen them do and the intensity they played at on Saturday (during the DN bit anyway) more than made up for the predictability of the setlist.
On a slight tangent the best SY gig I ever went to was during the NYC Ghosts and Flowers tour where they were forced to re-work the material and add some visuals to make it work in a live setting. In the process they created something awesome that I will never see/hear again. That's what live music is about to me. Roll on the NYC Ghosts... Don't Look Back show.
nostalgia is just not what it used to be
And with that...
...consider yr feathers ruffled.