As part of this year’s Melbourne Festival, Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo visited our shores to promote his new album, Between The Times And The Tides.
Backed by an absolutely cracking band, which included his long-time musical partner in crime, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, Ranaldo was in stunning form, to the great delight of the packed and loving crowd assembled at the Hi Fi Bar.
Ranaldo has a strong connection to Australia, including his production work on the classic You Am I album Hi Fi Way (that’s his voice you hear saying “Ain’t Gone, take 2” at the start of the record). Having visited here many times as part of Sonic Youth, tonight was a chance to shine under his own spotlight.
Kicking off the set with “Off The Wall”, a “statement of intent” – as Ranaldo described it to the crowd – this was a compelling and hugely enjoyable set.
What was most striking was the man’s unique way with a guitar, the sounds and feel he conjures up via his connection with the instrument. He attacks it in ways one has never seen before, such as punching the back of it to get a unique sound that you don’t often hear.
What is so gratifying about Ranaldo’s style and approach is that he manages to stay on the right side of that very thin line between creating something unique and compelling without ever falling on the self-indulgent or pretentious side, which can alienate and put off a listener.
Between The Times And The Tides is a strong set of more conventional songs from Ranaldo than some of his more experimental solo efforts. They also paint quite effective portraits of human existence, such as the track “Xtina As I Knew Her” which, Ranaldo explained to the audience, was about a group of friends he grew up with in New York.
Catching up with them some years later, Ranaldo explains, they were still spiritually in the same place they were when he started his career with Sonic Youth.
To his credit, Ranaldo did not use the back catalogue of his illustrious and better-known band as a crutch during this performance. It very much showed a truly unique and individual forging his own musical ground.
The new material, including tracks such as “Tomorrow Never Comes”, “Stranded”, “Karen”, and “Angles”, went down incredibly well with the audience; as well as including some very astute of cover version choices. Namely, Neil Young’s “Revolution Blues” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Working On A Dream”.
This connected beautifully to one of his own tracks, “Shouts”, about the Occupy Wall Street movement and its effect on his hometown, New York City, last year.
The night ended in an utter cacophony of noise and sound, with Ranaldo and his band really showing their musical chops in an absolute free-for-all jam.
It really was an absolute pleasure to watch a man who has been the inspiration to so many, still loving the life calling he has chosen; namely, to make music that, hopefully, the world can appreciate and identify with.
