1.	Halloween	5:42
2.	Death Valley '69	7:20
3.	Intro / Brave Men Run (In My Family)	4:51
--
4.	I Love Her All The Time	5:20
5.	Ghost Bitch	5:55
6.	I'm Insane	5:20
--
7.	Kat 'n' Hat	3:36
8.	Brother James	2:50
9.	Kill Yr Idols	2:32
10.	Secret Girl	3:13
11.	Flower	2:36
12.	The Burning Spear	5:01
--
13.	Expressway To Yr Skull	9:04
14.	Making the Nature Scene	3:42

 

HISTORY

In August 1985, Sonic Youth toured North America in support of Bad Moon Rising. Steve Shelley had only been in the band for a few months, and these were his first shows with SY outside of NYC. The tour opener on August 1st in Columbus, OH was released on video by Atavistic. Ten days later, the band played Chicago for the first time. A recording of this show appeared on a fairly common bootleg in the early 90s called Anarchy at St Mary's Place, but access to the four-track source inspired the band to remix and release the show in its entirety on their Goofin' label.

The show is a great document of this era of the band. They open with "Halloween" and the suite of Bad Moon Rising material, then perform a new song that only appeared on this tour - a piece called "Kat 'n' Hat" that Lee was trying to develop a vocal part for before it was abandoned (this version is sadly instrumental). They burn through staples "Brother James" and "Kill Yr Idols", then another new song "Secret Girl" which segues into "Flower" and then "The Burning Spear" via the Scream Tape, still in use two years later! Another new song, "Expressway to yr Skull" closes the set, and a shaky version of "Nature Scene" is the encore.

The show has a fair amount of crowd chatter that is barely discernable except at points where someone in the crowd seems to be deliberately trying to annoy the recorder (during "Expressway"). Check out Aaron's liner notes for further info on the origin of the tape and some tricks they used. Not mentioned is the bizarre 2nd vocal added to "I Love Her All The Time" - Thurston is heard singing with himself on both verses! I'm guessing this was done because he was unhappy with the original vocal, though I'm not sure how much it helps...

PACKAGING

The album cover features a composite of photos from another show on the tour, August 27th in Austin. Steve, Lee, and Kim appear to be playing "Making the Nature Scene" while Thurston is playing "I Love Her All The Time". More Austin pictures are included in the liners, as well as two pictures from the actual Chicago gig. These are all fascinating shots with some really cool details. Gerard Cosloy and Aaron Mullan provide liner notes.

CREDITS/LINERS

Sonic Youth: Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo & Steve Shelley
Recorded by Rich Menning August 11, 1985 at Smart Bar Chicago, IL
Mixed by Aaron Mullan and Steve Shelley 2011 at Echo Canyon West, NJ
Photos: (red) by Pat Blashil (Continental Club Austin, TX August 27, 1985); (b+w) by Steve Koress (Smart Bar Chicago, IL August 11, 1985); digital processing by Cody Ranaldo
Mastered by John Golden
Layout / photo edits by LR
All songs written by Sonic Youth, BMI

ADDITIONAL NOTES

A lengthy stretch of Madonna's "Into the Groove" played through a walkman while the band changes instruments between "Brave Men Run" and "I Love Her All The Time" is removed, as is a false start before "Kill Yr Idols".

On June 24th, 2021 the band released a limited edition version of the double-vinyl through bandcamp:

Handmade 'bootleg-style' double vinyl limited edition of Smart Bar - Chicago 1985. Color vinyl (all colors + combinations of color), hand-numbered with double-side newsprint style fold-over cover w poster on flip side of cover. Limited edition of 1,000 2xlps. Pressed at Kinder Core in Athens, GA. Poster/artwork designed by Bill Mooney of Tannis Root.

Note: The "bootleg" pressing of Smart Bar may contain a few audio pops on side 4 that may be unnoticed by most listeners but may not be suitable to audiophiles.

Includes unlimited streaming of Smart Bar - Chicago 1985 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 2 days
edition of 800

For more information on songs (including lyrics, who played what, when the songs were first and last performed, and other trivia), please visit the Song Database.

RELATED RELEASES