SONIC YOUTH/ THE MAKE-UP BARROWLANDS 1996
For Meantime Magazine
The Make-Up are visually stimulating in camp matching yellow outfits with bouffant girl bassist and a vocalist who thinks he’s Travolta and David Johannsen of The New York Dolls. Unfortunately their plundering of vintage riffs (including Kirn Fowley's "Bubblegum" - once covered by tonight's headliners -doesn't exceed the sum of the constituent parts. Although entertainingly served up with a side order of sixties organ, the Make-Up never surpass novelty status.
Sonic Youth's set is drawn heavily from the "Washing Machine" l.p.
Lee Ranaldo and an ice-cool Thurston Moore flail at a series of unconventionally-tuned guitars, abusing them with drumsticks and sliding and scrubbing at the surrendering strings. On record their blend of harmonies and dissonance resonates with a silvery sci-fi aura that evokes eerie urban vistas, sprawling hi-rises and pale concrete subways. Cool and focused amid sudden strobes and projections that dart and flicker above the stage, they add a strange intimacy toniqht. A demure-looking Kim Gordon breathes jaded innocence through several lead vocals and occasionally trades her bass for six-string guitar, most notably on "Washing Machine" itself. Making lull use of a crystal-clear drum mix, Steve Shelley is exceptional. On "Sugar Kane" he alternates expert power-housing with delicate cymbal and hi-hat work behind sub-aqua guitars.
Tonight all rivers lead to "The Diamond Sea": twenty minutes of shimmering dynamics and six-string savagery like on air-raid in calm, sunny weather. Arpeggios ruffle like flags after battle. Soundwaves recur and intensify.
A truly Sonic experience.
For Meantime Magazine
The Make-Up are visually stimulating in camp matching yellow outfits with bouffant girl bassist and a vocalist who thinks he’s Travolta and David Johannsen of The New York Dolls. Unfortunately their plundering of vintage riffs (including Kirn Fowley's "Bubblegum" - once covered by tonight's headliners -doesn't exceed the sum of the constituent parts. Although entertainingly served up with a side order of sixties organ, the Make-Up never surpass novelty status.
Sonic Youth's set is drawn heavily from the "Washing Machine" l.p.
Lee Ranaldo and an ice-cool Thurston Moore flail at a series of unconventionally-tuned guitars, abusing them with drumsticks and sliding and scrubbing at the surrendering strings. On record their blend of harmonies and dissonance resonates with a silvery sci-fi aura that evokes eerie urban vistas, sprawling hi-rises and pale concrete subways. Cool and focused amid sudden strobes and projections that dart and flicker above the stage, they add a strange intimacy toniqht. A demure-looking Kim Gordon breathes jaded innocence through several lead vocals and occasionally trades her bass for six-string guitar, most notably on "Washing Machine" itself. Making lull use of a crystal-clear drum mix, Steve Shelley is exceptional. On "Sugar Kane" he alternates expert power-housing with delicate cymbal and hi-hat work behind sub-aqua guitars.
Tonight all rivers lead to "The Diamond Sea": twenty minutes of shimmering dynamics and six-string savagery like on air-raid in calm, sunny weather. Arpeggios ruffle like flags after battle. Soundwaves recur and intensify.
A truly Sonic experience.
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