Sonic Youth Reprise 'Daydream Nation' at Osheaga

Like Pavement the night before, Sonic Youth were indie elders amongst a more current crop of rock bands. But they weren't content to look back and play godfathers -- that is, until the end of their Osheaga festival set.

As the New York art punks launched into the driving 'What We Know,' their seventh straight song off 2009's 'The Eternal,' it seemed they would be content to spend the duration of their set in the present tense. And just as the crowd was ready to accept the set as a live working of their latest album, Thurston Moore strummed the unmistakable first few bars of 'The Sprawl,' and suddenly Sonic Youth was back in Reagan years.

After a quick break for Lee Ronaldo to switch guitars, with little chance for the crowd to catch its breath, the band launched into the tempo-shifting guitar melody of 'Cross The Breeze,' the sequential next track from the band's seminal 1988 double-album 'Daydream Nation,' a record released years before many in attendance were born.

As Thurston violently stabbed at his guitar with a butter knife, Lee manipulated feedback, and Kim Gordon enthusiastically cooed her anti-sell-out lyrics ("Are you for sale? F-- you!"), it was obvious this wasn't just an exercise in nostalgia. It was a quick 15-minute glimpse into what's made the band great for so many years: a combination of unconventional guitar heroics, an unmistakable knack for melody, and an utter disregard for the conventions of live music.