[The Soup Nazi]

Haven't listened to the new track yet. Am waiting to receive my shrinkwrapped copy at the end of 2020's Q1 or summat. Alright — I've seen Lee perform live three times (four if you count a full soundcheck which was rocking and at one point hilarious; in any case it's a pathetic number compared to the experience of most people on this board, I guess): once with Sonic Youth a few months before The Eternal came out; then with The Dust (Alan Licht, Steve Shelley and the late great Tim Luntzel) shortly before Last Night On Earth "dropped" ; and the third time as the Electric Trim Trio (with Raül Refree and Booker Stardrum).

The SY show was solid and imperial, a snapshot of where they were at that point: finishing the Rather Ripped cycle, coming out of the Daydream Nation revisited gigs, introducing tunes like "Calming The Snake", and throwing in "the hits" for good measure ("The Burning Spear", "Expressway To Yr. Skull", "Schizophrenia", "Kool Thing", "100%", "Bull In The Heather"); nothing from the Washing Machine to Sonic Nurse years, but what was I going to do, complain? First time they'd ever been to my country, motherfuckers! And they would eventually do only one more show here: the penultimate date of the tour from hell (which is to say, their penultimate date ever), a gig I didn't attend because it was part of one of those atrocious death-of-art events with a filthy load of bullcrap acts that don't have jack to do with each other or with ANYTHING except the mookish "I was there" factor. (If you've watched In Doubt, Shadow Him!, you've seen Lee saying to Mark Ibold that the very last show, the one in Brazil, was in a "shitty big giant festival" — the very same could be said of their next-to-last appearance. If only we had a Big Ears and/or a Solid Sound…).

The Dust performance, in a much more intimate joint, was finally what I'd been waiting for ages: LR as a singer-songwriter with a killer "backing" band, covering Neil Young and Talking Heads (and, just let me add this, playing the best R.E.M.-type song R.E.M. would never be able to come up with again after New Adventures In Hi-Fi, the absolutely wonderful "Angles"). Moving to the core musically and personally, as I got the chance to give Lee a made-up present (I suppose that made it a "fake news" present, before the term got hijacked — remember we used to say "Faux News"?).

Last year, in an even smaller venue (which I'm all about, mind you, but I also think Lee deserves to play in the most elegant and majestic theater in town), I was also able to hand Mr. Ranaldo a present and then witness the Electric Trim Trio at full fucking blast. And NOW —

 

— is where this babbling post (thank you for reading this far) connects with what's been said on this thread: great as those first two occasions were, I had never seen Lee and one of his bands explode with such total sonic abandon. A big part of the reason behind it (or in front of it, rather!) was Refree: I immediately had to reconsider what I thought I'd heard on the Electric Trim album, because as a Nels Cline junkie I assumed all those guitar rave-ups were NC's. Refree "raved-up" like a BEAST on the six-string live (don't ask me what model it was; unless the thing says Rickenbacker and has a big number printed on it I won't be able to tell jack), and as if that wasn't enough he banged on the keyboards/synths/gadgets like Eno intending to get in a fight onstage with Ferry circa 1973. Guy knocked my socks off.

Reviewing Metal Machine Music for Creem in 1976, Lester Bangs wrote, "If you ever thought feedback was the best thing that ever happened to the guitar, well, Lou just got rid of the guitars". Dunno whether Lee and Raül have literally gotten rid of the guitars this time around, but if the sound follows that raw/furious and yet heartwarming "electronic" path, you can sure as fucking shit count me IN. And if it doesn't, count me in anyway — ya think I'm gonna reject such an effort by these cats?