[photo by thekittykat]
NYCTaper readers who have followed this site since the beginning may recall the difficulties that I had two and half years ago at a Sonic Youth concert in Brooklyn, my subsequent ill-conceived rant, the blow up that followed, and finally my apology. The end result was that I learned a very valuable lesson about misdirected blame. As I was very recently again mistreated by LiveNation security (Yo La Tengo at Roseland), its clear to me that some things will never change. Ultimately, I feel the site has been enriched by my vow to disregard the distractions and difficulties of the peripheral issues like concert security and venue politics, and to focus all the positive energy on the artists and their music.
This year for their brief NYC “tour”, Sonic Youth chose to book the shows with the excellent Bowery Presents. The end result was better venues, a better “vibe” at the shows, and ultimately a significantly superior concert experience for the fans. If Terminal 5 was the “big” show, the two nights at Music Hall were clearly the “intimate” shows. As it had been more that ten years since we had seen Sonic Youth at a venue of this small size (three nights at Irving Plaza in 1998), when we entered Music Hall on Tuesday night there was a feeling of walking back in time. The set consisted primarily of material from the latest album The Eternal, as the band performed again eleven of the album’s thirteen tracks. The highlights of the new material included Thurston’s relaxed and melodic seven minute “Anti-Orgasm” and the lengthy set-closing “Massage the History” which featured excellent vocal work from Kim. The acknowledgement of the band’s great history were contained in the two sets of encores and included two classic EVOL tracks and a wild “Silver Rocket” closer.
We recorded this set from the perfect location in this venue, the front left corner of the soundboard booth. As the concert was mixed to perfection by Sonic Youth soundman Aaron Mullen, this capture is perhaps one of the best recordings we have ever offered on this site. Enjoy!
Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)
Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].
Sonic Youth
2009-11-24
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA
Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Soundboard Booth
Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2009-11-25
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:33:42]
01 Sacred Trickster
02 No Way
03 Calming the Snake
04 Hey Joni
05 Malibu Gas Station
06 Anti-Orgasm
07 Poison Arrow
08 Walkin Blue
09 Catholic Block
10 Antenna
11 Leaky Lifeboat
12 Massage the History
13 [encore break]
14 Tom Violence
15 Schizophrenia
16 What We Know
17 [second encore break]
18 Shadow of a Doubt
19 Silver Rocket
If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Sonic Youth, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the Store at their website [here].
thankyou very much!
I just listened to your recording of the Pixies at Hammersmith Ballroom on November 23, and really enjoyed it a lot. Loved acidjack’s recording of Sonic Youth’s performance at Terminal 5 too. And now i’m quite thrilled about checking this one out.
Thank you so much for your constant efforts in taping and sharing excellent shows. Much appreciated.
Hope all is well,
Julian
much appreciated man! can’t wait to listen to it.
best regards,
Andrei
Thank you very much for this capture. The sound really is 5 stars. I was very torn between the Sonic Youth show & The Feelies Maxwell’s show. I choose The Feelies for several reasons, one of which was I saw that you were going to give Sonic Youth a second chance after the pool party incident. I’m so glad that everything worked out. Thank you very much for your efforts & labors.
Thanks a lot! Great recording!