Sonic Youth In Concert: ATP Festival 2010

On Sept. 4th, Sonic Youth performed their album “Daydream Nation” in its entirety as a part of ATP’s “Don’t Look Back” series. Thanks to NPR, their entire set is now available for download/streaming – get it here.

Sonic Youth is proud of where it stands. After each new album, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Steve Shelley and Lee Ranaldo tend to stick to recent material live. And why shouldn’t they? Sonic Youth is a class act on stage, no matter the set list.
But perhaps in the spirit of the All Tomorrow’s Parties “Don’t Look Back” series — in which bands at the New York music festival play classic albums in their entirety — Sonic Youth spent its ATP concert ripping through the songs that make it Sonic Youth to so many of its fans. Not one song recorded beyond Daydream Nation was played in the set heard here (and recorded Sept. 4). And while Dirty, Washing Machine and even the misunderstood NYC Ghosts & Flowers are great, the noisy side of Sonic Youth induces pure rock catharsis, with sidewalk grime beaten into four-string guitars and wrenched in Kim Gordon’s howl.

Set List:
“The Sprawl”
“Cross the Breeze”
“Catholic Block”
“Stereo Sanctity”
“Eric’s Trip”
“Death Valley ’69”
“Shadow of a Doubt”
“Hey Joni”
“The Wonder”
“Hyperstation”
“Shaking Hell”
Encore:
“White Cross”
“Expressway to Yr Skull”