Sonic Youth Shredding On ‘Recovery’ Is A Reminder Of How Great Live Music On TV Can Be

You may have noticed that Double J is currently in the middle of some ’90s nostalgia madness.

Over the last few weeks, they’ve (somewhat controversially) ranked the best Australian albums of the decade, dedicated every ‘J Files’ segment to artists like Powderfinger and Tupac, and spent every weekend programming only ’90s music. It’s been a pretty good time.

They’ve also been digging through the old ABC archives and pulling up some classic clips from shows past — like this one, of Sonic Youth tearing through ‘Sunday’ on Recovery way back in 1998. If you needed a reminder of just how good live music on TV once was, this is it.

And sure, Recovery may be done and dusted — and never to return — but live music on TV has been steadily making a comeback to our screens in recent months. MTV Unplugged has roared back into the scene with excellent sets from Amy Shark and Gang of Youths, and there are plenty more performances on the horizon.

“It’s a long term initiative,” MTV Vice President and Head Of Asia Pacific Simon Bates told Music Junkee recently. “At the moment, we’ve already locked down three years worth of shows. We’re going to be working and booking artists for 2019 at the moment, we’ll do 12 over three years.”

Read our deep dive into the future of live music on tv here. But before you do that, watch Sonic Youth tear it up below.