http://www.times.spb.ru/index.php?ac...story_id=22012
Chernov’s choice
Tequilajazzz will be opening for
Sonic Youth at Manezh Kadetskogo Korpusa on Monday. A member of the latter’s support act in Moscow 18 years ago,
Igor Mosin, remembers the gig.
“They played two concerts in Moscow, and we went there, upon the recommendation of [music critic and promoter Artyom] Troitsky, I guess,” said Mosin, who played drums with the local band Bad Influence at the time.
“There were a lot of Moscow bands before us, [the promoter] probably thought that [Sonic Youth] wouldn’t pack the theater. I remember there were bands like Brigada S and Nogu Svelo, they all wore sailor’s striped shirts, played Russian garmoshkas [a kind of button accordion] and behaved foolishly on stage.”
The public did not react particularly well in either city, according to Mosin.
“It started in Leningrad, when punks in the audience started to sing ‘God Save the Queen!’ and Thurston Moore said, ‘Guys, it was 20 years ago,’ but nobody understood him and went on. I even felt that they wanted to outscream [the band] and ask them to perform this song.
“They came to listen to the punk rock that they had already heard, but it turned out to be something totally new, something noisy, a strange combination of harmonies, strange blend of sounds, very powerful. Especially at the last concert in Moscow, they adapted a little to [the lack of equipment and poor acoustics], and it was that big wave, an avalanche, and the audience just sat deafened.”
The differences between the band and the audience even got physical during the second show in Moscow, according to Mosin.
“It was again a punk-type of audience, they tried to interrupt their playing, to grab their feet and at one point somebody grabbed Kim’s leg and started to pull her from the stage.
“The public was somewhat aggressive, and the times were more aggressive than today: there was a certain grabbing reflex.
“Thurston Moore ran to them, somebody sort of hit him, he hit him back and then people tried to climb on the stage to beat them, sort of. The rumor was that after the show, some people tried to break into their dressing room, and smashed the nose of one of the organizers. So they left for the hotel pretty quickly.”
Musician and promoter
Seva Gakkel was impressed by how Sonic Youth sounded.
“It was a total revelation for me; it was the first time that I came into contact with a different sound, absolutely unique in the environment where I was developing,” he said.
“Even if I had been to a considerable number of concerts by then, I’d never ever heard such sound, and it was a discovery I got from this band.”
“Keeping this reserved, cool attitude, they have had incredible energy, without any elements of making a show, of impressing the viewer. And with that they have an effect, say, on me.”
— By Sergey Chernov