Pavement, Sonic Youth, and No Age at the Hollywood Bowl

The last time I saw Sonic Youth and Pavement on the same bill, it was for the former band's Dirty tour. After playing the Palladium a few times to promote the excellent album, they came back to play a huge outdoor show with Sub Pop's biggest band, Mudhoney, and the still up-and-coming group from Sacramento. That show was out in the dirt, Thurston some passed the mic around the front row for some spoken-word action, Kurt Cobain showed up for some surprise songs, and Eric Nakamura took some rad pictures! Who would thought that Sonic Youth and Pavement would play again but at the Hollywood Bowl? And that their positions would be reversed! While Pavement's reunion is a serious cause for celebration, I guess sometimes sticking together, cranking out important music on a consistent basis, and playing out sometimes doesn't pay off…