06/12/85 - NYC, NY @ Folk City

One of the first shows Steve played with the band took place at New York's Folk City on Bleecker Street. One in a series of concerts titled Music For Dozens and arranged by writer-turned-musician Ira Kaplan and Michael Hill, the night was unique, even by Sonic Youth's standards. Thurston, Kim, and Lee stood on the stage, which was in the center of the room; Bob Bert and Steve Shelley each sat at full drum kits in separate corners of the room. King Coffey and Theresa [Taylor] of the Butthole Surfers filled the other two corners of the room with kettle drums. As the band played, all four drummers hammered away -- in the dark. Amplifiers in the rest rooms blared distorted tape loops. Disturbing, gory slides by Richard Kern (a man with a spear through his throat, for example) flickered on a screen. A mesmerized audience basked in the massive, tremerous quadrophonic scape.

UPDATE 11/01: I had a chance to ask King Coffey about this gig after a Butthole Surfers show the other night, and he was able to supply me w/ a little more information. First off, apparently I'm not the first person to ask him about the show -- since the publishing of "Confusion is Next", he's asked fairly often about "the four drummers show". He says that the Buttholes had been hanging around NYC a lot that summer and SY just invited King & Theresa down for the show. They had about one floor tom each, and the first song played was "Ghost Bitch". The idea was to create a cycle of alternating tribal call-and-response beats between the four drummers. He's positive about "Ghost Bitch", and believes the second song may have been "She's in a Bad Mood" (a song not known to be performed after 1983, which doesn't necessarily mean he's recalling wrong). After two songs, King, Theresa, and Bob departed and Sonic Youth did a full set with Steve behind the kit.

UPDATE JULY 2004! -- a recording of this show finally verified the set list.