Live Review And Photos: Sonic Youth, The Entrance Band at The Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, GA (07/13/09)

All Photos by Clint Miller

For the month of July Davy is off on the This Piano Plays Itself tour so Ohmpark has decided to enlist myself to keep you updated on what’s happening in the ATL. I was asked to review the Sonic Youth show Monday night at the Variety Playhouse. I was a bit skeptical that I could accomplish this at first due to the fact that I realized their is no way I could cover them properly since I belong to a younger generation of music fans and have not followed them for very long. In fact I am most familiar with their most recent album, The Eternal that was just released this year. I soon realized that this line of thinking was complete nonsense. That’s an elitist viewpoint. Also, who better to report on a band such as Sonic Youth than a complete noob? If they are able to impress me then that will show how incredible they actually are. So this review is for people like me, who aren’t familiar with 28 years of Sonic Youth records and live shows.

After arriving at Clint’s house and discussing the supposed $12 abortions that are available in California we quickly headed to Wendy’s. (BTW, We decided that if that’s true we need a mass exodus to California. That’s cheaper than condoms, pills, or moving to Mexico). After fucking with the Wendy’s girl (talking super slow and acting really surprised they had change for my 20) we headed to the Variety Playhouse in order to get there ten or fifteen minutes before the doors open. This would assure us a bad ass up front spot. To our absolute fucking chagrin there was a line of at least 60 people that went all the way past El Myr. Despite the bullshit of the situation we ended up very front stage right, which Clint informed me would be Lee Ranaldo’s side. As we waited we ended up talking to several die-hard fans. It turned out one kid has the same Radiohead tattoo as me and we had met before. I noticed some kids next to us bitching about how the set list would be comprised of mainly newer songs. I noticed them later rocking out harder than anyone to the very songs they were bitching about.

The Entrance Band opened up and despite their name they were actually pretty good. Their female bassist was the highlight for me.

Everything she played sounded right off of a Rage Against the Machine CD, but in a good way. I kept thinking the words “hippie” and “grunge” during their set. That seemed to best classify what I was hearing.

After a brief set from them it was time for Sonic Youth to come on.

I was expecting a four piece to hit the stage, but was surprised by a fifth member, Mark Ibold, who plays bass. I was familiar with him as the bassist for Pavement. He did a really good job yet it was obvious which members have been touring together for the longest.

Their set was almost entirely comprised of songs off of The Eternal. The songs “Anti-Orgasm”, “Antenna”, “What We Know”, and “Massage The History” stuck out as the best songs from The Eternal.


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