Sonic Youth songs that the band has not played live since 1995

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stats via http://sonicyouth.com/history/con-set.html

album tracks only (plus self-titled and Kill Yr Idols EPs), including a few songs that were never played live once to begin with

vote for fav i guess, but really vote for the one you most wish they'd actually play again someday

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Dirty Boots 7
Wish Fulfillment 5
Theresa's Soundworld 5
Stereo Sanctity 4
Tunic 4
Tuff Gnarl 3
Disappearer 3
I Dreamed I Dream 3
Brave Men Run 3
Swimsuit Issue 2
Protect Me You 2
Sweet Shine 2
Chapel Hill 1
Purr 1
Mary-Christ 1
Pipeline/Kill Time 1
JC 1
Beauty Lies In The Eye 1
Nic Fit 1
Confusion Is Next 1
Society Is A Hole 1
I Love Her All The Time 1
Doctor's Orders 1
Green Light 1
Androgynous Mind 0
Little Trouble Girl 0
On The Strip 0
In The Mind of the Bourgeouis Reader 0
Screaming Skull 0
Tokyo Eye 0
Creme Brulee 0
Self-Obsessed & Sexxee 0
Quest For The Cup 0
Winner's Blues 0
Youth Against Fascism 0
The Good And The Bad 0
She's In A Bad Mood 0
Early American 0
Ghost Bitch 0
I'm Insane 0
Justice Is Might 0
In The Kingdom #19 0
Death To Our Friends 0
Marilyn Moore 0
Hotwire My Heart 0
My Friend Goo 0
Cinderella's Big Score 0
Titanium Expose 0
Shoot 0
I Don't Want To Push It 0


some dude, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 02:50 (fourteen years ago)

Protect Me You

Nate Carson, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 02:51 (fourteen years ago)

my top ten/dream setlist:

Theresa's Soundworld
Dirty Boots
Brave Men Run
Stereo Sanctity
Purr
In The Mind of the Bourgeouis Reader
Confusion Is Next
Titanium Expose
Pipeline/Kill Time
I Dreamed I Dream

some dude, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 02:56 (fourteen years ago)

Wish Fulfillment.

V79, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 03:19 (fourteen years ago)

JC

alcololics anonymmvous (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 31 May 2011 03:28 (fourteen years ago)

Tough call between Disappearer and Wish Fulfillment.

Goonhynhnms & YaHOOS (WmC), Tuesday, 31 May 2011 03:31 (fourteen years ago)

out of the ones i've heard, probably Disappearer.. however, Dirty Boots would be amazing because then teen kids wearing Nirvana shirts can jump on stage and start making out

billstevejim, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 03:51 (fourteen years ago)

Theresa's Soundworld
Dirty Boots
Brave Men Run
Stereo Sanctity
Purr
In The Mind of the Bourgeouis Reader
Confusion Is Next
Titanium Expose
Pipeline/Kill Time
I Dreamed I Dream

this is a p good list but sorta not what id expect from you - i mean its not like ive got an .xls on yr sy tastes but yknow. 'bourgeouis reader' is kinda garbage tho

cant really choose btw soundworld/pipeline/tuff gnarl

Lamp, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 04:07 (fourteen years ago)

Bourgeouis Reader is my fav punky lite Thurston jam.

won't force the issue but i am curious what picks you WOULD expect of me!

yourraghjerk (some dude), Tuesday, 31 May 2011 04:09 (fourteen years ago)

haha i dont really know specifically - maybe like 'chapel hill'? - i guess just less noisy stuff in general idk...

also yr def sleeping on tuff gnarl in that list imo

Lamp, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 04:35 (fourteen years ago)

The Faith cover "Nic Fit" or the Crime cover "Hotwire my Heart"

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 04:38 (fourteen years ago)

Oops, "Nic Fit" was actually by Alex MacKaye's pre-Faith band, "Untouchables"

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 04:40 (fourteen years ago)

Alec

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 04:40 (fourteen years ago)

Stereo Sanctity

peter in montreal, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 04:43 (fourteen years ago)

haha i dont really know specifically - maybe like 'chapel hill'? - i guess just less noisy stuff in general idk...

also yr def sleeping on tuff gnarl in that list imo

― Lamp, Tuesday, May 31, 2011 12:35 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

my picks are noisy stuff? never really liked "Chapel Hill," much prefer "Purr" for that kind of poppy Dirty song.

"Tuff Gnarl" is great but not my favorite Sister song by a long shot, and in a weird way i like the version on Mike Watt's Ball-Hog Or Tugboat more.

yourraghjerk (some dude), Tuesday, 31 May 2011 12:04 (fourteen years ago)

I Love Her All The Time.

EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 12:08 (fourteen years ago)

Wish Fulfilment

ears are wounds, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 12:38 (fourteen years ago)

love Sweet Shine. about as underrated as a sy song can be imo

bluelips, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 12:43 (fourteen years ago)

so many id choose...but there seems to be a consensus forming around wish fulfillment so ill go for that too

Michael B, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 12:43 (fourteen years ago)

that's some list. anything off bad moon rising would be interesting to hear them do today really. i guess they stopped playing a lot of these (like stereo sanctity) because steve can't be bothered anymore.

sonderangerbot, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 12:48 (fourteen years ago)

"Wish Fulfillment" is surprisingly one of the songs never played live (on the Dirty tour they played the b-side "Genetic" as the token Lee song at a lot of shows).

rebecca sprayfart (some dude), Tuesday, 31 May 2011 12:57 (fourteen years ago)

Starting a show with "Sweet Shine" would be awesome.

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 31 May 2011 13:19 (fourteen years ago)

"Wish Fulfillment" is surprisingly one of the songs never played live

That's bananas - I wonder why. There's nothing in the arrangement/tuning that would make it a hassle or anything, is there?

She Got the Shakes, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 13:43 (fourteen years ago)

It is insane that "Theresa's Soundworld" is verboten.

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 31 May 2011 13:46 (fourteen years ago)

well, Dirty does have the largest # of songs of any SY album, kinda makes sense that it'd have a fair number of songs that weren't live staples (in fact 7 songs have been played live less than 20 times!)

rebecca sprayfart (some dude), Tuesday, 31 May 2011 13:48 (fourteen years ago)

theresa's soundworld live is/was an immense, breathtaking thing.

tylerw, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 17:18 (fourteen years ago)

Stereo Sanctity played live a lot last year.

Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 00:51 (fourteen years ago)

"Chapel Hill" is maybe my fave Dirty tune, so that.

Simon H. Shit (Simon H.), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 00:58 (fourteen years ago)

Wish Fulfillment, She's In A Bad Mood, I Love Her All The Time.

one dis leads to another (ian), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 02:26 (fourteen years ago)

why would they stop playing "Dirty Boots"? is TM as dumb as his stage patter suggests?

the gay bloggers are onto the faggot tweets (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 02:31 (fourteen years ago)

dear dr. morbius, never change. love, ian <3

one dis leads to another (ian), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 02:43 (fourteen years ago)

I'd like to hear them do "protect me you" but they'd prolly ruin it so n/m

bandcamper van beethoven (Edward III), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 02:46 (fourteen years ago)

boy they really dislike the Geffen period, don't they?

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 02:54 (fourteen years ago)

last time i saw sonic youth, 2002, they played 'she is not alone' and 'skiptracer' and i was ecstatic.

one dis leads to another (ian), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 02:57 (fourteen years ago)

Stereo Sanctity played live a lot last year.

― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Tuesday, May 31, 2011 8:51 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

oh shit, i misread the song stats page and fucked that up

SORRY EVERYBODY DO NOT VOTE FOR STEREO SANCTITY MY BAD

a http://bit.ly/kv895M (some dude), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 03:33 (fourteen years ago)

That brief run of shows w/o Ibold last year where they played almost nothing from the last 20 years was pretty good. This is a very good and very, very hard poll BTW.

Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 03:56 (fourteen years ago)

They were doing "Drunken Butterfly" from Dirty fairly regularly as of '06. Of all the tracks from Dirty...

Chris L, Wednesday, 1 June 2011 04:21 (fourteen years ago)

Disappearer for sure, one of my all time favorites.

WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 05:17 (fourteen years ago)

TON of my favorite SY songs on here. imfucking possible. love these:

I Dreamed I Dream
Confusion Is Next
Brave Men Run
Society Is A Hole
I Love Her All The Time
In The Kingdom #19
Death To Our Friends
Marilyn Moore
Beauty Lies In The Eye
Pipeline/Kill Time
Tuff Gnarl
Dirty Boots
Tunic
Mary-Christ
My Friend Goo
Disappearer
Theresa's Soundworld
Shoot
Wish Fulfillment
Chapel Hill
Purr
Creme Brulee
Screaming Skull
Self-Obsessed & Sexxee
Androgynous Mind
Tokyo Eye
Little Trouble Girl

contenderizer, Wednesday, 1 June 2011 09:04 (fourteen years ago)

finalists:

I Dreamed I dream (close to my favorite SY song)
Death to Our Friends (kind of shocked that they don't play this, such a classic)
Beauty Lies in the Eye
Pipeline/Kill Time
Disappearer
Wish fulfillment
Self-Obsessed & Sexy

wish Stereo Sanctity were on here so i could just vote that and get it over with. guess it's I Dreamed I Dream

contenderizer, Wednesday, 1 June 2011 09:08 (fourteen years ago)

protect me you or brave men run

I've got great memories of confusion played in the early days as a clanging meltdown - their first "rocker" - wonder how it would sound now?

backlash stan straw man fan (m coleman), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 09:46 (fourteen years ago)

Tuff Gnarl

It kind of suprises me they don't play this one.

I'm not surprised that many of the tunes on Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star don't get played live, as they are more moody pieces and some like Tokyo Eye are based around some effects.

earlnash, Wednesday, 1 June 2011 11:36 (fourteen years ago)

hey not to derail here but I saw them play "I Dreamed I Dream" in 1999, at the Seattle Bumbershoot. It was awesome.

sleeve, Wednesday, 1 June 2011 20:12 (fourteen years ago)

ha! i saw that show. you're right, i'd completely forgotten, and i fucking voted for "i dreamed i dream". smdham.

contenderizer, Wednesday, 1 June 2011 20:59 (fourteen years ago)

or, well, you might be right. i've seen them play it, but it could have been earlier. memories of that bumbershoot show are pretty vague...

contenderizer, Wednesday, 1 June 2011 21:00 (fourteen years ago)

I've told the story that I saw their last show with the vintage gear (Berkeley, 90s... later than 95 though... I think late 90s?) I'm sure missing the vintage gear is the reason why many of these songs haven't been played?

it's a meme i made and i like (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 21:06 (fourteen years ago)

4th of July weekend 1999.

it's a meme i made and i like (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 21:07 (fourteen years ago)

I wish I could remember all the set list from the Nov 1990 show I saw. I remember most of Goo being played (incl a fairly apocalyptic "Disappearer"). I'm pretty sure I remember them playing "Death to our Friends" as well. Great, great show; the Jesus Lizard was the middle band on the bill.

what made my hamburger disappear (WmC), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 22:32 (fourteen years ago)

sy setlists: http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/sytour.html (posted above too). kind of a fun way to waste some time.

tylerw, Wednesday, 1 June 2011 22:36 (fourteen years ago)

Yeah, I checked it when it was first posted and the Memphis show setlist isn't available.

what made my hamburger disappear (WmC), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 22:37 (fourteen years ago)

I have it here WmC:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3507/4036784425_97dd0e9619_z.jpg

New Daisy, Beale St, 1990 (not listed on SY chronology fwiw)

it's a meme i made and i like (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 22:40 (fourteen years ago)

No Disappearer nor Death fwiw!

it's a meme i made and i like (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 22:41 (fourteen years ago)

bad memory + wishful thinking

what made my hamburger disappear (WmC), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 22:42 (fourteen years ago)

yeah, i checked that and another SY set list site, when sleeve mentioned "i dreamed i dream". isn't mentioned, but i went along with it, cuz i don't really remember. what i do remember is that it was only a couple months after the equipment theft and that it was consequently (?) all instrumental and very noise-oriented. crashing sheets of molten sound that went on and on, rising and collapsing like massive lava bubbles. i was bummed at first, cuz i wanted the tunes, dammit, but then closed my eyes and let the patterns fit the music. not the best SY show i've ever seen, but pretty cool.

contenderizer, Wednesday, 1 June 2011 22:57 (fourteen years ago)

also to loop back to WmC... written setlist <> audio setlist. there are often variations from what's planned on paper and what happens on stage.

it's a meme i made and i like (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 1 June 2011 23:00 (fourteen years ago)

I stand corrected, it was "She Is Not Alone" at the Bumbershoot '99 set (Sept. 5th)... I have it on a bootleg set.

and contenderizer yer memory is correct, it was a crazy instrumental freakout set until the encore.

sleeve, Thursday, 2 June 2011 00:28 (fourteen years ago)

what's really weird abt that bumbershoot show is that i strongly remember them playing at least one of the long, chill, psychedelic guitar tracks from a thousand leaves, in instrumental form. "hits of sunshine", i think, but it doesn't show up in any of the setlists. suppose i could be confusing this show with another, though.

contenderizer, Thursday, 2 June 2011 00:34 (fourteen years ago)

becuz that was such a cool show here are the notes from the D!ME seed:

1. intro
2. free city rhymes
3. renegade princess
4. nevermind (what was it anyway?)
5. small flowers crack concrete
6. side2side
7. streamXsonik subway
8. she is not alone
9. nyc ghosts & flowers [beginning cut]
10. lightnin' (encore)

---

This was Sonic Youth's 2nd appearance at the annual Bumbershoot Festival held over
Labor Day weekend in Seattle, Washington. The first two years they played ('97 and '99),
they took advantage of their mid-afternoon gorgeous sunny open air sets in the enormous
football stadium to perform nearly all-instrumental sets of brand new material to
tens of thousands of people (in '97 they were doing Thousand Leaves/SYR tunes, and later
in 2002 they did their standard Murray Street tour set).

This show is interesting -- 2 months after their gear theft in California, they'd
already written 6 new songs to add to the 2 they'd debuted pre-theft, and on August
26th, 1999 (during a surprise gig at the Knitting Factory in NYC), debuted the 8 song set that would essentially become the 'nyc ghosts & flowers' LP. All songs were still instrumental, except for the encore 'Lightnin'. Just over a week after that show was their next appearance, for the huge Bumbershoot crowd, and they performed all 8 songs again, as
well as 1 track off their very first (soon to be reissued!) EP. Listed on the set list
but not performed was the James Tenney piece "Having Never Written a Note For Percussion"
from the SYR4 project.

At this show, the songs sounded very abstract compared to the versions that were
released on 'nyc ghosts'. With familiar guitars now gone, the material was quite different from the previous record, less 'pretty' and more sinister, with Thurston using objects
such as a mallet, chisel, and bike horn (!) between his strings for his parts on various
songs. Jim O'Rourke's production worked well for the material, but I do like hearing
it in its original form -- listening to this tape I always find it hard to believe this
was recorded in a football arena, the music diplays an almost claustrophobic violence at times.

A little about the recording -- I taped it with a rented Sony Walkman, with an external
mic, from the front row. At times you can hear security walkie-talkies, on-stage off-mic
speech, amplifier hum, and planes (?). Oh, and the motherfuckin' whistler. I apologize
in advance for this guy, who was about 3 feet away from me, if I recall. He makes
his presence known all too well, fortunately mostly only between songs (in some extreme cases, I actually had to remove it). There's a lot of crowd noise from my general location,
but it usually doesn't interfere with the songs.

This show features one of only two performances of "streamXsonik subway" (the other
being the aforementioned Cooler set). It also features a great version of "She is Not Alone"
from their first EP. Aside from some very small benefit things + the infamous UK ATP 2000,
this was basically one of their last shows as a quartet.

sleeve, Thursday, 2 June 2011 01:14 (fourteen years ago)

i remember listening to that Bumbershoot set online somewhere shortly after the fact and thinking the new stuff sounded really cool, then being so disappointed with the vocals they added on NYC G&F. actually, i had a less extreme version of the same experience with A Thousand Leaves after hearing instrumental versions of those songs beforehand, too. which is why i kind of make a point not to seek them out anytime SY debut new material live now.

a http://bit.ly/kv895M (some dude), Thursday, 2 June 2011 01:27 (fourteen years ago)

thanks, sleeve! duh, i was confusing the 97 and 99 sets. the 97 set was noisier, though they were both instro, and had the mille feuille tracks. #seesthelight

contenderizer, Thursday, 2 June 2011 01:31 (fourteen years ago)

Ha! I remember that bumbershoot show--it was at 11 am, and in-between tunes two dudes complained about how unprofessional SY were. I was too busy getting the top of my head blown off. Great concert memory.

WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Thursday, 2 June 2011 05:28 (fourteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 23:01 (fourteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 23:01 (fourteen years ago)

no fulfillment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WhiteAmericanFolks.jpg (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 23:02 (fourteen years ago)

Fuck, would have voted Theresa's Sound World. Love it to death:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVvteK1XLBc

grandavis, Thursday, 9 June 2011 14:15 (fourteen years ago)

surprised by the strong showing for "Tunic"!

51 Cent (some dude), Thursday, 9 June 2011 14:18 (fourteen years ago)

No love for Hot Wire My Heart. Shame. Like their version (though not enough to vote, obv).

Trudi Styler, the Creator (ithappens), Thursday, 9 June 2011 14:19 (fourteen years ago)

i could see that one being more fun in the context of a show more than on the album (although it's not on the Hold That Tiger, which is my only frame of reference for Sister-era shows, so i've never heard it live)

51 Cent (some dude), Thursday, 9 June 2011 14:24 (fourteen years ago)

tunic is great

brodie_odie_dope (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 9 June 2011 14:33 (fourteen years ago)

I really love "Tunic" as well, but I have trouble imagining it being great live for some reason. Seems like an album track that wouldn't be quite as majestic live. Guess they are pretty anti-cove live (excepting those Ramones covers from Hold That Tiger). Haven't looked at the archive though, maybe they did more covers once upon a time?

grandavis, Thursday, 9 June 2011 14:35 (fourteen years ago)

wouldn't say they're anti-covers but yeah for the most part they've never played covers live regularly, and most of the ones they have were things that also appeared on albums (I Wanna Be Yr Dog, Nic Fit, SYR4 etc.). probably more of a headache to learn covers for them than most bands given the alt tunings.

51 Cent (some dude), Thursday, 9 June 2011 14:51 (fourteen years ago)

makes sense. the alt-tunings is what made me not ever want to learn any of their songs on guitar

brodie_odie_dope (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 9 June 2011 14:53 (fourteen years ago)

Not anti covers, but just live they seem to stick to originals. Seems they have recorded way more covers than they have played live. Would actually love to hear their Plastic Bertrand cover live one day. Fuckin love it. (Never happen of course)

grandavis, Thursday, 9 June 2011 15:00 (fourteen years ago)

have there ever been any particularly good Sonic Youth covers by other bands? I seem to recall hearing Cat Power do "Schizophrenia" which was exactly how you'd imagine it. Trying to think of any others.

tylerw, Thursday, 9 June 2011 15:04 (fourteen years ago)

elf power did a twee cotton crown iirc

sonderangerbot, Thursday, 9 June 2011 15:07 (fourteen years ago)

o yeah i have heard that too. i have a weird fantasy/nightmare about a straight up country dude doing "diamond sea." probably w/o the freeform jam.

tylerw, Thursday, 9 June 2011 15:12 (fourteen years ago)

my band in high school played "silver rocket."

tylerw, Thursday, 9 June 2011 15:12 (fourteen years ago)

Missed this, but "Beauty Lies in the Eye" is the reason I got into them.

Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:04 (fourteen years ago)

kinda surprised at all these songs they don't do! eird

minor domestic strife coping with death dinosaur harrassment (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:09 (fourteen years ago)

WEIRD

minor domestic strife coping with death dinosaur harrassment (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:09 (fourteen years ago)

eird too

And the piano, it sounds like a carnivore (contenderizer), Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:12 (fourteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zForRqJMDpU

it's a meme i made and i like (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:51 (fourteen years ago)

crazy 'titanium expose' didn't get any votes

balls, Thursday, 9 June 2011 22:01 (fourteen years ago)

Brave Men Run wuz robbed. And why the heck won't they play that? That's one of the best songs Kim ever did with them.

kornrulez6969, Thursday, 9 June 2011 22:22 (fourteen years ago)

they haven't played anything but "Death Valley '69" from that record in the last 15 years (and for a while before that "I Love Her All The Time" was the only other)

some dude, Thursday, 9 June 2011 22:26 (fourteen years ago)


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