photos by Bao Nguyen, words by Martin Longley

The 'A' train is not carrying its accustomed load, up at 175th Street. Droves of downtown rock'n'rollers are arriving at the relatively underused United Palace Theatre, on the less-frequented Washington Heights section of Broadway. It's an architectural wonder, impressively elaborate even before entering. Once inside, the exotica magnifies, as the foyer is encrusted on all sides by highly detailed work that can only be described as a decorative fusion. This joint must surely be one of the city's most ornate theatres, and on a particularly grandiose scale. It's best described as a dripping melange of Moorish, Hindu, Gothic, Rococo and Coney Island motifs. A huge organ sits waiting, greeting arrivals upon entry. Upstairs, the sealed manager's office has a David Lynchian metal lozenge of a sign hanging above its door. Down the corridor (with its infinity of mirror-reflection lamps) is another shuttered room with a keyhole that reveals an empty banquet table. The Room Of Rest has a row of porcelain urinals to covet. Upon entering the loges (balcony, to ordinary mortals), the full scale of this massive space is revealed, the vast walls continuing the densely barnacled theme. Although grand, there's also a sense of faded decadence, an almost morbid aura of decay. Upstairs, though, the acoustics are reverberational in the extreme.

review continued w/ more pictures & setlist, below...

Continue reading "Sonic Youth & The Entrance Band @ United Palace Theater in NYC - pics & setlist"