Last Night Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth @ House of Blues, Dallas
posted by on October 9 at 13:46 PM
Stranger contributor Bill Cody flew to Dallas last weekend to check out a historic bill at House of Blues—the Meat Puppets and Sonic Youth, who first played together 26 years ago. Here are his words and photos of the show.
I’m on the edge of the crowd at the brand new House of Blues in Dallas, Texas when I realize it’s all happening.
The Meat Puppets had just finished the regular portion of “Up On The Sun” when they locked into one of their extended space jams in which Curt Kirkwood demonstrates why he’s considered one of the greatest guitar players of all time. People all through the crowd are throwing their hands in the air and I’m transported back to another time, when music was the most important thing in my life…
When the Pups finish the song nearly five minutes later, the kids who weren’t fans before are definitely fans now. The band followed up with one of their “Nirvana hits,” “Plateau,” and then—just to prove they’re still the contrarians of old—they played a Buck Owens song. The mostly high school-aged crowd scratched their heads.
The first time the two bands played together was 1981. It was the Meat Puppets’ first show in New York City and the venue was Folk City, one-time home of Bob Dylan. The crowd was all Mohawks and leather jackets and when the Pups came out with long hair and cowboy boots the audience was ready to destroy them. Then the freaks from Arizona proceeded to play faster and louder than any band that the Gotham punks had ever seen. They concluded the night by chanting “You are my daughter” back at the crowd.
Four years later, the two bands were label mates on SST. Sonic Youth played their first Southern California gig in the middle of the desert with the Pups at a show promoted by the founder of Amok Books called the Gila Monster Jam. (That weekend, a young Perry Farrell fronted Psi-Com, one of the opening acts. He later admitted this show was where he got the idea for Lollapalooza.)
Of course both bands were integral parts of the early-’90s, Seattle-led grunge scene and the whole Nirvana phenomenon that swept the world. (In case you are either very young or lived under a rock at the time, check out Dave Markey’s “The Year Punk Broke” or pick up a copy of Nirvana Unplugged, Live in New York which came out on DVD recently.)
Around 1995, however, the fortunes of each band changed dramatically. Sonic Youth kept a loyal, sizable fan base and became mini-moguls in the world of upscale art retail. They pulled off the mean feat of remaining hip while courting respectability all at the same time, which is no minor accomplishment.
My friends the Kirkwoods, on the other hand, saw their band torn apart by drug addiction and self-destructive behavior, all of which was chronicled in couple of articles that appeared in numerous publications all over the country. That was before Cris was shot in the back by a Post Office security guard and sent to Federal prison four years ago. The fact that Curt and Cris are playing together at all is a miracle.
At the end of the Meat Puppets set, Lee Renaldo and Thurston Moore come over flashing big goofy grins. “Where you guys hanging out?” Thurston asks. Curt motions over to the small dressing room on the side of the stage. Pretty soon every member of Sonic Youth is packed into the Meat Puppets’ dressing room. There’s a lot of laughter and reminiscing.
The time that Sonic Youth is scheduled to take the stage comes and goes. A couple of their roadies ask me if I know where everyone is. I motion over to room where all the laughter is coming from. They just nod.
A few minutes later, Sonic Youth walks onto the stage at the almost too-nice-to-be-a-rock-club venue that is the House of Blues. Kim and Thurston wave to the young and attractive crowd. They don’t have to win over the crowd like the Pups did. They had them at hello.
nice bong
"Of course both bands were integral parts of the early-’90s, Seattle-led grunge scene and the whole Nirvana phenomenon..."
No they weren't. Both peaked in the '80s and weren't integral to anything that happened in the '90s. For most SY fans their 1990 major label debut "Goo" was the sign of their downfall. Great alt pop album, but nothing groundbreaking to alternative/punk/experimental music like Sister, Bad Moon or Daydream had been.
Hey Dan,
Thanks for taking the time to read my article. I'm always curious what things people take from my work.
And while I usually hate arguing semantics, I'm afraid I'm going have to have to grab my dictionary and pummel you with it.
According to the Oxford dictionary the definition of integral is a "necessary and important as a part of, or contained within, a whole". Since the history of grunge in general and the band Nirvana specifically has already been written, I find it very hard to believe that anyone would argue that Sonic Youth and the Meat Puppets were not necessary and important parts of that story. I even provided two very specific pieces of evidence in the piece just in case anyone still questions what should have been obvious at the time.
As for your comment regarding "most SY fans" you might want to check out one of the sold out shows on this current tour. Most SY fans these days didn't have any opinions about Goo when it came out. That's because they were either in diapers or their Mom's womb at the time.
PS - I checked out your web-site and I think it's great.
Thanks for checking out my blog. But I'd argue that using that Oxford definition, The Meat Puppets and Sonic Youth still were not an integral part of the '90s grunge scene. Neither lived in Seattle and neither played grunge, the movements/sub-genres they came from happened the decade earlier, they were already well established by the early '90s. Sonic Youth's music might have influenced some grunge bands, but it's a huge stretch to say they were integral part of it. They were part of the whole Touch and Go mid'80s post-punk experimental noise scene with Killdozer, Big Black, Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, Happy Flowers, etc.
If you were around in the music scene here then you'd know that link was barely there... only because bands like Nirvana and Mudhoney tended to open up for bands like the Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth. With the Meat Puppets I don't see a connection at all. You can't rewrite that history just because they showed up in the same movie and played some shows together. The biggest out of town connection to what was going on here at the time were the bands Amphetamine Reptile were putting out. Shit like Helmet, Lubricated Goat, The Cows, Jesus Lizard, Cosmic Psychos, Chokebore, The Crows, God Bullies, Hammerhead, Melvins, Surgery, Tar, Unsane, etc. Every time and Am Rep band played the Off Ramp, Mark Arm and Steve Turner were up front with the rest of us sipping Texas-sized margaritas and rockin' out.
Well, you'd have to look at the root of the word integral. It is actually a mathematical term that refers to integers - and it basically means that any integer that is involved in the equation -
In an equation like say 4+5+1=10 - all the integers are necessary to the overall equation. Even though 5 is a bigger number than 1 both are needed and therefore integral to the equation.
Whether or not the folks from Sonic Youth and the Meat Puppets hung out in Seattle, it is a fairly well known fact that Sonic Youth pushed for Nirvana to sign with Geffen who then put them with Butch Vig who then produced the CD that pushed Michael Jackson out of the top spot on the Billboard charts. I would say that's a pretty integral part of the Nirvana story no matter how you cut it.
As far as the Meat Puppets there are many statements from Kurt Cobain himself regarding their influence, they spent much of the last nine months of his life on the road together and were in fact the band that was on the road with Nirvana when Kurt made his first suicide attempt in Italy.
Eddie Vedder was a surfer boy in LA and San Diego when Green River and Soundgarden were playing gigs around Seattle at small clubs, but I doubt that anyone would say he wasn't part of the Seattle led Grunge movement.
By the way, I loved the Cows. Whatever happened to them?
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