Sonic Youth once urged fans to “Kill Yr Idols,” but these days the group has become an alternative version of the classic-rock royalty their music fought to depose. So what else does a band that has released 16 full-length records during its career-- or 23, depending upon how you count-- do to cement its status as venerable alt-statesmen but play an entire album, front to back, in front of an adoring audience?
This is the dynamic created by the avant-garde festival All Tomorrow’s Parties, which has established its tastemaking reputation by asking indie figureheads to replicate their rock-snob record collections through “curating” lineups featuring unexpected reunions and surprising onstage setlists. Lately this has meant an imaginative campaign aimed at convincing artists to play albums live in their entirety - slow-rock pioneers Slint reformed to perform their critically-beloved Spiderland at the Barcelona Primavera Sound festival in 2007, while this fall, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore will run through his solo joint Psychic Hearts as part of a three-day event in upstate New York featuring the first U.S. appearance in 16 years by the legendary U.K. shoegaze act My Bloody Valentine.
The notion of playing one’s album live is far from a new one. As far back as the 1960s, bands ranging from the Moody Blues (1967’s Days of Future Passed) and the Who (the legendary rock-opera Tommy) attempted to replicate the running order of their albums in various live environments. In the ‘90s, acts such as Phish took this a step further by playing someone else’s album every Halloween - the Beatles’ White Album, the Who’s Quadrophenia and Talking Heads’ Remain in Light were all tried on like various “musical costumes.” More recently, indie bands have joined their classic-rock brethren (such as Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, who performed Dark Side of the Moon at this year’s Coachella festival) in reviving the practice, albeit, on terms seemingly aimed at generating buzz in the blogosphere. This fall’s ATP will feature Built to Spill playing its major-label breakthrough Perfect From Now On, Meat Puppets tackling their desert-rock classic Meat Puppets II and Tortoise essaying its epic Millions Now Living Will Never Die.
“The big appeal of these kinds of shows is that usually you have no idea, as a fan, of whether the band is going to come out and do all these songs you don’t know,” explains Doug Martsch, Built to Spill’s founder/frontman, of the appeal of playing his group’s album start to finish. “With ATP’s show, you know exactly what’s coming next. I love the idea, so much so, we’re going to do a Perfect From Now On mini-tour afterward. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can take away from the experience.”
LOVE YOU LIVE
Top Five Albums We’d Like to Hear Played from the Stage
The Village Green Preservation Society, The Kinks*
Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair
Slanted and Enchanted, Pavement*
Horses, Patti Smith
OK Computer, Radiohead
Chinese Democracy, Guns ’n Roses (since it seems unlikely we’ll ever hear it otherwise)
* Big-ass, Pixies-style reunion/reconciliation also required
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