Sonic Youth + Pavement - Den Grå Hal, Freetown Christiania, Denmark, November 17, 1992
Ah, to be in the Danish anarchist commune known as Freetown Christiana in the fall of 1992! You could've gotten phenomenally high and gone to see a sweet double-bill of Sonic Youth and Pavement — both bands that were reaching respective peaks at the time. It would've been fun. But the audience tapes are also fun, taking us back to those uhh simpler (????) times.
Pavement leads things off, with Gary Young powering everything with gleeful abandon — when he's not wandering offstage, that is. Hey, he was taking the anarchist thing seriously! The band was just a few years old at this point, but they've got an impeccable repertoire already, whether it's early faves like "Perfect Depth," Slanted masterworks like "Perfume V" or enchanted slayers like "Frontwards." I especially dig the wasted medley of "Greenlander" and "She Believes" that closes things out in groovy fashion.
Sonic Youth, meanwhile, were touring behind their second DGC effort Dirty and those tunes are given ferocious readings — check out Kim Gordon's unhinged vocals on "Swimsuit Issue" and "Drunken Butterfly," Steve Shelley's majestic swells on "Theresa's Sound World" or the Dino Jr-esque moves of Lee's "Genetic" b-side. There must've been some kind of riot happening in Freetown that day; Thurston delivers an ode to the healing powers of tear gas at one point.
Everything goes off the rails beautifully at the end as Malkmus joins SY for encore performances of "Expressway to Yr Skull," "Nic Fit" and Youth Brigade's "No Song II." A beautiful night in '92!
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