Sonic Youth
ACL Live Shots
Reviewed by Audra Schroeder, Fri., Oct. 15, 2010
Sonic Youth
Zilker Park, Oct. 8How has Sonic Youth kept virtually the same lineup for 25 years, never broken up, and continued putting out relevant albums? How does Thurston Moore still have a full head of hair? Perhaps the NYC-bred quartet has discovered the elixir, because they've done an exemplary job of being eternal teenagers. Nearly 30 years in, they still see noise as art, alternative tunings and vague poli-sexual lyrics their medium. Their ACL set was heavy on last year's Matador debut, The Eternal, from opener "Sacred Trickster" through "Antenna," "Anti-Orgasm," and "Poison Arrow." With the exception of Goo deep cut "Mote" and a couple of others, the band's Zilker Park performance was essentially the same as the night before, when they steamrolled a taping for Austin City Limits. Outside on the Honda stage, they upped the noise freak-out, namely in the five-minute tail-end squall of "Anti-Orgasm" and closers "The Sprawl" and "'Cross the Breeze," a twofer from 1988's Daydream Nation, all of which bookended an era now being cherry-picked.
