Sonic Youth deflowers Roseland Theater

Photo courtesy of sonicyouth.com.

Imagine: your head is sweaty, your hands are sweaty, your body succumbs to a profound yet primitive rhythm, and a barelegged Kim Gordon stands above you pleading, “kiss me.” If you can imagine that, then you know exactly how Sonic Youth performed at the Roseland last night.

Legendary experimental rockers Sonic Youth played hard to a crowd of literally plenty of people yesterday, braving the downtown theater’s stage on one of the hottest days Portland has seen since...well, the day before. “Kiss me in the shadow of a doubt,” sang the still-sexy Kim Gordon during her band’s second encore, just before bludgeoning through a hellish rendition of their 1985 classic ‘Death Valley 69’ to end the set.

But by no means did Sonic Youth save their youthful energy until the end. Throughout the night the band performed with just as much sweat and snarl as ever, turning the crowd on with earlier-career favorites like ‘Stereo Sanctity’ and ‘Silver Rocket’, as well as a few tracks from their recent June 9th release, The Eternal. Indeed, as soon as guitarist/singer Thurston Moore ferociously dived into the group’s new number ‘Anti-Orgasm’ mid-set, it became apparent that, ironically, no one was to leave unsatisfied.