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my first sonic youth concert was in London in the year 2000. Part of the NYC Ghosts and Flowers show. I went with my friend Rorie and my dad (as a 16 year old living in Scotland, my parents didn't want me going to London alone.) We were staying in a decent hotel which was being renovated which meant the rooms were cheap. Me and Rorie had a room and my dad had a room.
We got the train to London. Then I think we got the tube to the hotel. Once in the room, we discovered you could watch around 60 seconds of the porn channel on the TV before it cut off and prompted you to pay. We ate in a McDonalds for dinner then made our way to Shepard's Bush Empire. A ticket tout standing outside: "buy or sell tickets ta see sonic yoof!"
inside, we marvelled over the colourful array of t-shirts at the merchandise stall. Rorie bought the one with the picture of buildings, I opted for the Pope painting which features in the NYC G+F liner notes. To this day it remains one of my favourite t-shirts even if it is slightly large... i'll post a pic of it soon actually...
anyway, we made our way up to the balcony and got seats. I was incredibly excited. I had been OBSESSED with this band in a particularly teenage life or death way for the past two years and here I was about to see them in the flesh. This was the second night of a two night stint in Shepard's Bush. I had been studying setlists on the various SY message boards of that time and had a fair idea of what "classic" SY jams might emerge. I had listened to the previous night's gig online on some live streaming radio program which had whetted my appetite.
The support bands wre ok. Not bad, not great. I was just eager for some SY.
I was wearing a homemade Goo t-shirt...
Finally they appeared on stage, made a little small talk and launched straight into... TEENAGE RIOT... me and my friend went apeshit as that was one of our favourite songs of the day... then they went straight into BROTHER JAMES... incredible... we felt as if we had been sent back in time 9 years and punk was just breaking... They played much of the NYC G+F LP plus some of my favourite old songs including Sunday, Mote, and Tom Violence... completely amazing... i left breathless and enthused....
after an endless encore of Lightnin, on the way out i heard some jaded londoner mutter something about "white noise.."
Beautiful white noise indeed...
SETLIST:
Teenage Riot
Brother James
Free City Rhymes
Kool Thing
Small Flowers Crack Concrete
Mote
Nevermind
Side2Side
Sunday
Tom Violence
NYC Ghosts & Flowers
--
Lightnin'
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