Plutôt Déchiré, Killing Me Slowly

Hello Everyone!!

I.
Last night I went to my first rock show in Paris that was not a) part of an enormous festival or b) an unknown french metal band. I got to experience one of the less legendary venues in Paris that is nevertheless one of the best ones I have seen a show in. I was expecting a venue along the lines of the 9:30 club in which I have seen Sonic Youth twice before (though I left both shows early). Apparently Paris is much more populated than Washington, D.C. because this place was more along the lines of the Patriot Center. That is, if the Patriot Center was set up for concerts and not sports events. I tragically forgot my glasses at my friend's place the night before, so I was ready to see absolutely nothing, but even from side seats I could make out Kim Gordon's gyrating breasts and middle-aged dance moves. I would never be able to effectively watch the guitarists closely anyway since they never use anything close to a standard tuning. I also convinced a friend to accompany me so that I wasn't doomed to third wheel status with a couple I work with all day every day already.

Dinosaur Jr. was an amazing opening act, since they start out really strong and played such a short set that there was barely time to get bored with the overwrought guitar solos that are only impressive if you've played a guitar solo in your life. Well, actually they are kind of impressive anyway but J Mascis has a guitar style like Jon Stewart's comedic style: efficient and awesome in its context, but really it's the same motif over and over again. I might be short-changing Stewart, actually. Anyway, they played "Feel the Pain" which I'm glad I hadn't heard in a few years, but not my favorites from the rest of their catalog. Oh well.

Sonic Youth, on the other hand played practically all of my favorites and I could not have asked for a better show if I had made the setlist. Maybe "Bull in the Heather" but I was pretty happy with the finale "Shaking Hell" for the requisite angry woman poetics. "Take off your dress / Shake off your FLESH!" One good thing is that, as expected, most of the set was from the new album, which you can get an idea about from Robert Christgau's review which starts off by saying: "So let me put it this way: Sonic Youth are the best band in the universe, and if you can't get behind that, that's your problem."

That's some serious talking up! He probably just hasn't heard the new Backstreet Boys album yet. But seriously, if you're familiar with Xgau, though, you know that his hyperbole is not like Joel Siegel's or Leonard Maltin's or any of those. Anyway their new songs are definitely shorter and catchier. So it's more accessible, and at the same time still has all the absurd guitar distortion that I loved so much when I first heard the Smashing Pumpkins steal it from them. But I was thinking of Xgau's review because I could not tell if I was enjoying the show because I now know their stuff, or if it was truly better or at least more accessible than when Bill Bert and I walked out of their epic one-chord marathon a few years ago. The reaction my friends' had gave me a clue though, since none of them were fans or even knew the songs and they all loved it. So I encourage any and all of you to go see them when they're in town, it's always cool to see an old band that's still cool and isn't the Rolling Stones.

[As an aside, if you can manage to listen to "Reena" the opening track off of Rather Ripped their new album, please tell me if it sounds like the music to Double Dragon II or something else for Nintendo, every time I hear the riff I think of Nintendo!]

II.

The concert outing was followed by a trip to reunite with my old roommate and friends Pete and Rosy (respectively) who came down from England for the week, which is pretty crazy to append to a concert experience. It's definitely a different concert experience in the city when it doesn't automatically mean waiting two hours in a parking lot after the show and then driving five hours more to get home. Even without that added stress, it still makes for a hectic night, and fits in with the rest of my month which has been absurdly hectic during the weeks and sleep-filled on the weekends. It is becoming a bit much and I feel like I am very gradually inching myself towards an early death if I continue these rock star ways. Partly to blame is the fact that my friends are on average five years younger than I am, which is an entirely different lifestyle. But I also need to learn to say no, probably. Kim Gordon had some lessons to impart on that subject:

"You keep me coming home, again."