Thurston Moore, J Mascis, Be Your Own Pet Blow Minds, Amps at SXSW

Thurston Moore demonstrated all sorts of guitar heroics at Friday night’s Ecstatic Peace showcase at the Mohawk Patio. The rock legend/label mastermind spent the night prepping to play his own headlining set while shepherding the rest of the lineup’s acts through trouble — reassuring Be Your Own Pet when their sound went dead; adjusting the treble on J Mascis’ amp (”Much better!” he mouthed). Though he was often visible lurking side-stage, when Moore stepped up for his set and teased a photographer in the front row about his Courtyard Marriott pen, the truly magical Moore arrived. Opening with “a song about everybody who’s out of work” he kicked into “Off Work,” a wordless three-chord jam that summarizes the aesthetic of last year’s solo album Trees Outside the Academy — crisp acoustic-guitar led tracks that sound like Sonic Youth’s less-squawky songs on Ambien. Moore played several more Trees tunes (”Silver>Blue,” “Honest James,” “Fri/End”) that showed off his ability to write (relatively) short and sweet songs and his skill at generating epic tension with just a single repeated note. When it came time to acknowledge his band, Moore introduced his bassist — a dead ringer for Chris Cornell in Singles— simply as “Satan,” adding, “you know Steve Shelley” (violinist Samara Lubelski and guitarist Chris Brokaw rounded out the lineup). Moore returned for the encore with a sticker-coated electric guitar and the crowd went wild when he announced the band would be playing the Velvet Underground song they’d honored Lou Reed with the day prior, lesser-known gem “I’m Not a Young Man Anymore.” “I’m going to be five-oh this year,” Moore said, “and I like this song because it’s about growing old.” It was an ironic intro since watching his mop of hair flop around duri
	Published: 2008-03-15 Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, SXSW