1st Class Sonic Youth Breaks Sound Barrier Wednesday, July 2, 2003; Page C05
Despite being laughably second-billed to Wilco, the venerable New York City band Sonic Youth sizzled Constitution Hall on Monday night, roaring through 70 minutes of sublime material that made the headliners sound rather anemic in comparison.
Most of the crowd was still filing in when the quintet (which now includes multi-instrumentalist Jim O'Rourke) opened with the new "Peace Attack," an anti-Bush screed that led into a succession of songs from "Murray Street," the band's accomplished album released last summer. The addition of O'Rourke -- who alternated between guitar and bass -- has opened three-guitar vistas for the band, resulting in subtly cascading sheets of melody in "The Empty Page" and a galvanizing "Rain on Tin," where three giddy, pealing riffs collapsed in a howling art-punk heap. Throw in Kim Gordon's trailer-park noir vocals on "Plastic Sun" and "Drunken Butterfly," Lee Ranaldo's snippy "Skip Tracer," a snarling "(I Got A) Catholic Block" and a version of their latest single, "Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream," and Sonic Youth left little doubt that the band is as vital and ceaselessly inventive as when it began disassembling rock notions 20 years back.
Wilco's stage setup -- background films, gadgetry, multiple keyboards and a center spotlight for leader Jeff Tweedy -- portended the band's fussy, strung-out sound, which veered from uplifting to yawn-stifling, often in the same song. Over a wide-ranging whorl of new and old material, Tweedy's voice and guitar were the only Wilco constant, sashaying through "Jesus, Etc." and "Via Chicago," dropping the country-rock hammer on "Casino Queen" and "I Got You" and dueting with O'Rourke on a version of Loose Fur's "Laminated Cat." Still, too many numbers were cluttered with the kind of useless canned blips and keyboard noodles that prove Wilco is still far too undisciplined to be the kind of great live act its supporters claim it is.
-- Patrick Foster
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61005-2003Jul1.html
