09/12/95 - Paris, France @ Elysee Montmartre

Expressway to Yr Skull as first song... I'm going totally ballistic... The crowd is dancing... Right before the break launching the noisy part, I go crowd-surfing... I'm on top of people's head, surfing allright... The break is here, silence in the venue, and i'm still surfing... And the silence lasts... And Thruston doesn't launch the noise part... And i'm still surfing... After like 10 seconds I force myself down, and right after I land Thruston sings "... to your Skullll" and the noise starts and the crowd gets wild.

I'm 95% sure he waited for me to go down to launch it. I was half-pissed off, half delighted. :)

Tom Violence, Ineffable Me, Death Valley 69, Cotton Crown, Hoarfrost, Expressway, NYC Ghosts & Flowers, Brother James, Kissability, Schizophrenia followed by Teenage Riot at my first show, covering Calling All Girls, everything......

haha got a video of that?

yeah, definitelly first ones. when thurston climbed the amps during the pattern recognition in brixton acadamy in '04. best sy moment for me.

Seeing them do an all instrumental set of all new material (much of which would later turn into NYC Ghosts and Flowers with vocals, but some from the SYR records too I'm pretty sure) at Bumbershoot in Seattle. It was amazing because the crowd totally dug it and there was massive crowd surfing even. Too all new material without vocals! They actually did it again the next year and there wasn't nearly the response, but that first time was just amazing.

En español, porque hay mucho boludo que no va a enteder nada.
because, I remember a very good moment of SY alive.

Todo empezo de noche, de pronto una tormenta electrica se desataba y Sonic Youth salia a escena, los rayos, explotaban detras del escenario y los chicos de SY brillaban en sus instrumentos.
genial
Sean lennon tambien toco ese dia y no me acuerdo de su show
ahh si recuerdo que el boludo no entendia español y la gente le pedia que tocara alguna canción de la madre

dc, 6/15 of this year, early show.

kim: "were you at the show last night?"
me in the front row: "yes."
kim: "you had a different snoopy shirt on. snoopy rules."

fun fact--i actually died after that moment. all this posting, travelling to
england; that is in fact my soul doing all that. if you were to check me
for a pulse, you would come up empty. truth!

Its really hard to say I've been to 24 shows. I guess the biggest thrill for me was meeting them. TM KG & LR in Austin 2004 and SS in PA in 2004.

you forgot to use the term cool for describing said meetings.

saw the yoof for the first time this past weekend at the state x show. fucking awesome obviously! . .. and loving these threads too. my view of the stage and band was sublime, if u know the venue i was on the left lower balcony right up front. a position in which not only could i read the setlists but could also reach down and grab a lock of lee's hair . . . should i wish. i didn't. however, from this vantage point i witnessed a spectacle that will remain with me for perhaps as long as the show itself will. that of a man having the spirit of the sonics in him . . . rushing on to the stage . . . spinning in a wild circle . .. uncontrollable . . . and throwing his 6foot+ frame in to the unsuspecting audience below . . . which, in turn, horrified, moved en masse in differing directions to allow the excited chap the full freedom of the floor . . . slapping down hard to many an oooh/aaah . . .. not only this but i continued to spy his return back to his mates head down a little ashamed i imagined him to be . . . . whereby he was followed by a rather scarylooking and baldheaded fellow who took it upon himself to land a slap on our excited youngster's face and return back to where he was so rudely interrupted. . . . stagediver man looking around wondering what had happened . . . me half pissing myself half pissed at this commotion distracting my first sy gig . . . . but priceless nonetheless and certainly worth sharing on this thread.

Sorry it was COOL

My favorite Sonic live moment was just seeing that the band could and would still go on. It was a couple days after their gear got stolen. I drove down to Austin but the show had already been sold out but luckily I ran into Steve at a record store and he put me and my friend on his guest list. Outside listening to the soundcheck it didn't sound so hot. They had rented gitars/amps from a local store. But when they opened up with Schizophrenia it sounded as great if not better than any show I had seen by them up to that point. So it was great to see that their great musicianship came out of them and not just some fucked up sounding guitars as some were saying. But to pinpoint a certain part of that show Thurston's rented amp wasn't handling being pushed beyond the sonic threshhold too well so Thurston stops and starts messing with it and says "I don't think my amp is digging what I'm doing'.

sonic faith

Sonic Youth 04 - toronto

Thurston climbing on amp during pattern recognition and scraping the guitar on the amp head

I like the guitar sword battle that Lee and Thurston do all the time

So many moments: I've been listenning to them for so long that shows have become part of memories of certain times of my life. I guess various shows in Cetral Park stand out the most: Independence Day, 1992: with good friends, hanging out all day, digging the soundcheck, seeing Sun Ra get wheeled out to the piano in a wheelchair, having Thurston dedicate Teenage Riot to the "Central Park hardcore scene", thinking of friends from that summer, when I discovered Slanted & Enchanted, Unrest, Crazy Horse Malt Liquor, etc...
Fast-forward to the next decade. Digging on another free concert, sitting out in the grass on a beautiful summer day w/my (now) wife, reading the paper, eating fruit. Then, on the Sonic Nurse tour, back in the park, a picnic dinner, my wife pregnant with our son. Sun setting as we walked south, cutting thru the playground... You may think it's dumb, but it puts things in perspective for me.

At the Milwaukee show in August, Thurston came out and took off his shoes. He said they were from a fan and were too hot or something. So for the rest of the set he walked around in socks AND STEPPED ON MY HAND! AHHHHHHH HE HAS SEXY-FEELING TOES.

When I saw them this past summer, Thurston had some Nike shoes on. After opening with Schiz, he took them off and said something along the lines of "Nike is politically bogus." Also, before Rats, Thurston touched my friends fro and laughed. Kim did the same during What A Waste.

picture? i think i know what you mean, but maybe its something else

SY in Ballmer
 

Saw SY back in like 1991 in this weird mall near the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Was walking to the show and saw SY hanging out with Fugazi. Very cool moment.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kcj0rn_N4t4
Look around 3:40