Here's a just posted blog from WFMU,
July 05, 2008
Sonic Youth / Feelies Battery Park Pix and Thanks
We'll credit Gaylord Fields' onstage Feelies intro invocation/namedrop of Bud Costello as the positive vibeage that kept big rain away from Battery Park yesterday, but it was a great atmosphere all around for the thousands who attended the
WFMU-supported Sonic Youth/Feelies show put on by River To River and Downtown Alliance. We should say upfront that both bands' soundmen were geniuses, it's the best I've heard either act, and a big shout to our own Irene Trudel, Bill Bowen, Scott Williams and Diane Farris for swinging WFMU's first ever big-venue live broadcast for the Sonic Youth portion, which went out at 5:00 PM on Friday. SY put in a set leaning heavily on some classics, opening with "She Is Not Alone", tossing in "Silver Rocket", "Cross the Breeze", "The Sprawl" "Making the Nature Scene", "Schizophrenia" and more, with Thurston at
one point calling FMU "American's Only Rock and Roll Radio Station". The band, which carved this event out by inviting the Feelies and helping us on board in the first place, even went above and beyond by having their merch company Tannis Root create a limited edition WFMU/Sonic Goo commemorative shirt (pictured above with SY drummer Steve Shelley) which they donated all the proceeds of to the station. Enormous thanks to Sonic Youth and the Feelies (who we couldn't broadcast, but were also fantastic beyond belief despite the fact they had to condense their set into an hour timeslot), and also Ken and Ben Walker for pre/post show remote, Liz Berg, Tony B., Joe McGasko, Jason Sigal, Dave Cunningham, and all our volunteers that helped with and staffed the merch/Free Music Archive giveaways, Hot Rod for running board at FMU, River to River and Downtown
Alliance staff who helped out (especially Jody, Chris and Dylan), Jay Weissman, SY manager Dan and Silva Management, Eric Dimenstein, Feelies manager Bob, Bill at Tannis Root, and everyone who jumped the ticket hurdles to get down. And thanks as well for the park's resident turkey for allowing our intrusion, and to the bomb-sniffing dogs who ensured that any lack of
Crazy Rhythms-era material would not provoke a terrorist attack. Hopefully some live video to come shot by our documentarians,
here's some pix on my Flickr page to check out now; feel free to add your own links to your pics or You Tubeage in comments below. Don't forget,
WFMU's next Free Concert Series event happens August 20th at Damrosch Park in collaboration with Lincoln Center: The Ex (as a 10-piece!) with Getatchew Mekuria and more!
Posted by Brian Turner on July 05, 2008 at 09:38 AM in
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