A video of Sonic Youth covering The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” from a show at The Rat in Boston on May 9, 1987 has surfaced. The New York-based band were surprise guests at a Forced Exposure benefit where they played an impromptu set. Footage from the live show that was never before seen was just recently added to Sonic Youth’s YouTube channel.

Kim Gordon, the bassist for Sonic Youth, was featured on vocals for the rendition of The Stooges’ song alongside their guest guitarist J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. The impromptu performance from the band featured borrowed instruments from Dredd Foole and the Din. During their appearance at the Forced Exposure benefit, Sonic Youth also covered Crime’s “Hot Wire My Heart.”

Sonic Youth’s performance of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” was a grunge-y garage punk performance. The band was incredibly energetic and seemed very prepared despite the fact that the performance wasn’t planned. A few weeks after the show, they performed the very same song in London with Iggy Pop.

In August of last year, it was announced that Sonic Youth’s album The Whitey Album, which was originally released as Ciccone Youth, was officially available to stream on Bandcamp. The album featured several covers included Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love” and a variety of combining covers of Madonna tracks.

During the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown, Sonic Youth had released 11 different show recordings on Bandcamp but unfortunately were unable to release the remaining 4 due to the fire at Universal Studios destroying some of their recordings. Other bands such as Nirvana, R.E.M. and Soundgarden were also among those who were affected by the fire.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat