Sonic Youth Opens

I saw Sonic Youth open for another band.

Of course, it was long after they had established themselves as a top, mid-range draw. They had already headlined Lollapalooza. And they opened for Wilco who shared Jim O'Rourke.

Sonic Youth blew Wilco off the stage that summer night in Cleveland.

The Best Show I Ever Saw

I remember seeing Pavement at the Agora Theater in Cleveland with the Dirty Three and Come. While I was hanging out in the lobby before the show, some kid asked me about my t-shirt. I was wearing my blue Archers of Loaf shirt that featured the same picture of a hockey player as their Vs. the Greatest of All Time EP. The kid couldn't get into the show since he wasn't yet eighteen.

I saw Archers of Loaf show was in Columbus, OH at a venue called Stache's. Stache's is no longer in the same location. Within a couple of years, the dark, dingy rock dive would be torn down in favor of a shopping center that would feature a Gumby's Pizza, a tanning salon, and an H&R Block storefront. This was same venue that Sonic Youth played in for the first time with drummer Steve Shelley. The place was a historical landmark of college rock and the indie scene.

It was my sophomore year in college and I was still learning about indie rock. Despite living in Columbus for almost two years, I had yet to attend a show at Stache's. Of course, they were constantly going back and forth between allowing those under eighteen through their doors. In fact, my girlfriend at that time hadn't yet turned twenty. We weren't even sure she'd get in, but it was announced that those under eighteen would be allowed in for an additional surcharge. Nineteen was fine.

Archers of Loaf were unknown to me just a couple of months earlier. I had only learned of them through a random track on the My So-called Life soundtrack that my brother and sister gave me the year before as a joke for my birthday. The song "South Carolina" was constantly played in my dorm room. It wasn't until about a year later that I had heard anyone even mention the band Archers of Loaf. This guy Brad was letting me in on the latest in upcoming shows. I was intrigued as soon as he mentioned Loaf playing Stache's.

The local free paper, The Other Paper, was pushing the Loaf show in the week leading up to the gig. The first local band I followed was the band Earwig. They were opening along with this band called Helium. Helium was getting a lot of attention since signing to the indie-rock label du jour Matador and featuring a member of math rock auteurs Polvo. It was going to be the indie rock happening of the spring.

Being the uncool hipster wannabe that I was, I wore my bright orange Weezer t-shirt and high school ball cap. It was the spring of 1995. My indie rock obsession was about to begin.

Earwig put on one of their more memorable shows that night. It's as if they knew that this was the show that could propel them to greater things...it ultimately wouldn't, but it felt like it could. They rocked through their set and finished with their typical closer, "Wounded Knee". This was one of those three part songs that was made to be a finale. It opened with a sparse guitar riff with plenty of space before rocking with an urgency that riled the crowd into a frenzy. The song finished off in similar fashion to the opening chords before breaking down into a punk rock deconstruction. My heart was pumping. Those around me had these wide-eyed looks of amazement on their faces. This was only the first band.

Our friend (another guy named) Brad who now plays for The Sun was raving about the next band Helium. He was a Loaf fan but was really looking forward to Helium's set. The buzz in the club was definitely about Helium.

Helium was fronted by Mary Timony who has had a solid career of her own over the last decade. The band's video which showed Timony dragging a hoe through a field had been displayed on Beavis and Butthead. The "animated" adolescent twosome of course made some comment about a "ho" as the video played.

My girlfriend bumped into Timony in the restroom. She warned my girlfriend that the stalls were a little scary. Timony later autographed a Helium t-shirt for her while Archers of Loaf played their set.

Helium's set wasn't all that energetic, but it rocked anyway. I still remember the old toy keyboard that Timony duct-taped popsicle sticks to in order to hold a note through one of their songs. I could barely make out her voice, but the band played a loud, raucous art rock. The set was able to live up to the buzz.

Archers of Loaf was up next. I had been anticipating this show for the past month when (the first) Brad had first mentioned it. He had loaned me their two full-length discs which I promptly copied. Icky Mettle and Vee Vee are still two of my favorite records to this day.

I had a spot right in front of the stage, leaning on the monitors. I was so close that bassist Matt Gentling nearly hit me several times over the bridge of my nose with the end of his instrument when he wasn't yelling a drunken "thanks" into the mic after every song. Eric Bachman, an imposing presence with his 6'5"+ frame and throaty growl yelled into the mic 24 inches to my left. Dana Carvey look-alike Eric Johnson was maybe five feet away, shredding the hell out of his guitar and distortion pedals. Mark Price was the most ordinary-looking of a band of ordinary-looking guys, but he could beat the skins into oblivion.

Archers of Loaf played a set that included their hits "Web in Front", "Harnessed in Slums", and "Wrong". During the set, Loaf played "You and Me" which led right into "Might" with a bang of the drums exactly like they had on Icky Mettle. I could see at least two other guys in the audience mouth "just like on the record" as I was thinking the same thing. They played "Audio Whore" and shook the ground beneath my feet as everyone screamed along. The band virtually played every song from their young catalog sans "South Carolina".

I saw Archers of Loaf play three more times after that and have seen Eric Bachman several times as his next incarnation, Crooked Fingers. Never did the band sound as good or rock as hard as they did that night. That show changed the way I looked at live music. There was an entire community of people who lived passionately for these regular guys playing guitars in crap dive bars. I think that I have been searching for a show like that Archers of Loaf gig for the past thirteen years. I want that high again.

So, when the kid at the Pavement show asked what he missed, I didn't have the heart to tell him what that show meant to me. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was the greatest, most human experience of my life. So, I said it was "alright."

Ben, Thurston Moore, and Kim Gordon

My friend, Ben, once obtained the NYC phone number for punk rock couple du jour Thruston Moore and Kim Gordon. He left them a rather suave message about seeing them about or some crap like that.

This Guy, Lee Ranaldo, and Archers of Loaf

The night after the lady licked my ear clean at the Guided By Voices show in Dayton, I decided to brave yet another GBV show, only this time in Columbus.

I was driving with my friend John and a couple of his buddies.

One of John's friends - let's call him "Steve" since I don't remember his real name - heard me mention Archers of Loaf and had a story to tell.

Steve went to school somewhere in North Carolina. He drove over to Chapel Hill one night to catch Archers of Loaf in their hometown. As an added bonus, Steve met Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth outside of the venue.

Steve and Lee struck up a somewhat friendly conversation. Then, Lee wanted to go in before Archers of Loaf began their set, so he went around to the back entrance, as rock stars tend to do, and said he'd meet Steve inside.

Steve started to walk up to the front entrance when he noticed two concert-goers being turned away because they were not 21. Steve, who was 20 at the time, didn't know what to do. He really wanted to see Archers of Loaf and wanted to continue his conversation with Lee, but now he was unable to enter the venue.

A few minutes later, Ranaldo comes out looking for Steve. Steve tells him the situation. Lee offers Steve his ID and says he'll meet him inside.

Steve promptly walked up to the doorman and handed him his ticket and Lee's ID. The doorman looked skeptically at the ID, at Steve, and then back at the ID. He asked Steve what year he was born.

Who really knows how old Lee Ranaldo is? Steve apparently did not. He guessed something like 1962 (Lee was born in 1956) and was turned away as the doorman kept Lee's ID.

Steve eventually got in the back door with Lee's help, but the only thing he could remember from that Archers of Loaf show was his encounter with Lee Ranaldo.

Thurston and Lee in an Alley

The day after seeing Sonic Youth open for Wilco (Jim O'Rourke-palooza) in Cleveland, I got to meet Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo in an alley.

We had just finished eating dinner at Bento A Go Go in Columbus and a buddy of mine (now in The Sun) claimed to have seen Sonic Youth inside, ordering bento boxes. This was highly likely since Sonic Youth was playing that night, next door in the Newport (the US's longest running rock club).

We left Bento by driving down the alley behind the Newport when we saw them. It was Thurston and Lee just standing there, signing autographs. My sister, who also attended the show on the previous night, and I were too afraid to approach our heroes, but my crazy friend Nicki was not.

Nicki made us pull over and she leaped out of the car to meet these two guys she had never heard of. After we watched Nicki talk to T & L for a few minutes, she ran over and told us that they wanted to meet us.

Except for my wedding, I've never felt so nervous in my life. All that I could muster was "You guys were good last night". This was my chance to ask about stories of playing for the first time with Steve Shelley behind the drum kit in Columbus or letting underage fans into clubs on Lee's id. I wanted to talk about how they rebuilt their instruments from scratch in order to make their unique sound only to have these same instruments stolen while on tour. I had tons of things I wanted to know but no gumption to speak up.

Nicki, on the other hand, had no problem. She asked what the "pace" button on Lee's shirt meant. She asked how tall Thurston was and about his daughter. Coco. She explained that she had never heard their music before but was way more into folk. She went on and on, and T & L thought she was fascinating.

Now, I know what you're thinking: The only reason Nicki was so comfortable with T & L was because she didn't know who they were. Well, that ain't the case. I witnessed Nicki go right up to Joan Baez at a peace rally and hug her. She's had heart-to-heart conversations with Ani DiFranco and Tori Amos. Nothing phases her.

After Nicki and 2/5 (O'Rourke was with them) of Sonic Youth chatted it up in the alley, the guys signed my sister's Sonic Youth tote bag and we sulked away. I doubt I'll get a chance to talk to them again, but at least I had a chance.