Thurston Moore and the Rock and Roll Consciousness Tour. Yeah. Let’s just let that float there for a moment. Thurston Moore and the Rock and Roll Consciousness Tour. It isn’t the most awe-inspiring band name of all time, and has a weird 1970s feel to it. What is awe inspiring however is the music they make.

Some might argue that this is just a vanity project so Moore can get back out on the road, and in a cynical way they are correct, but isn’t every band a vanity project of sorts? However, Thurston Moore and the Rock and Roll Conciousness is more than this. The music they play is filled with amazing melodies and hooks, all the while underpinned by these avant garde roots. Moore kicked things off with ‘Cease Fire’. Sounding enough like Sonic Youth to get everyone’s attention, either that or the volume it was being played at. Moore was effectively saying “Yes I’m nearly 60, and yes this does sound a bit too much like my better known stuff, but this is how I write songs. It’s still fun though, and you’re probably too merry to tell the difference so let’s have some fun!” And fun it was, filled with its jarring guitars, droney bass and catchy melodies. ‘Turn On’ was up next and followed on the same course, except this time it felt like a pop song as everything was drawn out and elongated. Winding guitars lead us on a twisty turning three minute intro before the song really exploded with the band just letting rip and having fun. ‘Feedback Jam’ was on next and lived up to its name, showing Moore has lost none of his perspicuity or proclivity for just making a bloody great big noise! One of the set’s many highlights was ‘Speak to the Wild’, on this Moore really showed that he can write a great song with (semi) catchy choruses and conventional structure. I might be the only person, but live it reminded me a lot of the Neil Young classic ‘Hey Hey, My My’, only louder and more thorny.

The rest of the set was culled from the Rock N Roll Consciousness album. This was to be expected, as it has just come out, and was fantastic to hear it played live, through an almost deafening sound system, but it would have been great to have heard a few more older songs. I don’t mean Sonic Youth here, but songs from his solo albums. Saying that the drumming on ‘Cusp’ was worth the entrance fee alone, as Steve Shelley gave a masterclass! The final three songs ‘Smoke of Dreams’, ‘Aphrodite’ and ‘Exalted’ felt like a suite that rolled into each other, thematically and musically with laconic guitars, juddering bass and rolling drums. After a short break Moore and co returned to play ‘Ono Soul’. It was a fitting end to an exciting and visceral set.

Tonight, Moore showed that he still has the chops that made him a household name, in certain households, by delivering a set that was influenced by his past, but also hinted to a bright second act. The only real problem with Moore’s set is that every song sounds like your favourite Sonic Youth track, but after a few seconds you realise it isn’t, then you spend time being despondent and annoyed that it isn’t Sonic Youth, rather than enjoying what Moore is delivering. This isn’t really a problem, and now I see it displayed on screen I feel churlish for thinking it at the time, but at the time it did hold me back enjoying the gig for what it was: a middle aged man and his friends playing some pretty decent music on a Friday night in a great venue.
Nick Roseblade

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