There’s some ace YouTube footage of Sonic Youth subjecting Brighton beach to a no-wave noise assault on a windswept November afternoon back in 1985 (see below). The sound quality’s terrible, but it’s a fantastic piece of local indie-rock history. They should stick it in Brighton Museum.
We’re betting some of those who were there, nearly 32 years ago, will be in attendance when SY’s singer/guitarist Thurston Moore and drummer Steve Shelley reconvene a few hundred metres up the road at Hove’s Old Market next month. We’re betting they’ll be banging on about it to all who’ll listen, too. And who can blame them?
If you haven’t heard it already, the five extended jams on Thurston’s latest album, Rock ‘n’ Roll Consciousness, very much mirror the later sound of Sonic Youth — stripped back, dreamy, out of focus guitars that twist and evolve into towers of tumult. No surprises there then, but middle-aged indie kids will be super hyped about the addition to the band of My Bloody Valentine bass thumper Deb Goodge. She worked as a taxi driver for a while after MBV split, you know.
Although tickets were expected to “fly out” (in Resident’s words), there are still some available. We get the feeling that might not be the case for long. Update: we were right, it sold out quick.
The Old Market, Friday 23rd June 2017
