"I was rather ripped when I got here...."

Fifteen minutes into Sonic Youth's appearance last night at the Fillmore, we thought we had a feel for their set. We'd just seen them play "Teen Age Riot," embark on a noise coda at least five minutes long (featuring crossed-swords guitar neck rubbing from Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore), and launch into "Candle". Two songs from 1988, plus some old-school Sonik Toothery in between? A.L. Jones turned to me and said, "I think it's just going to be that kind of a night."

After that, though, they leaned on Rather Ripped for most of the next hour. I'm afraid I don't own the record yet, but I know I heard "Incinerate," "Rats," and "Or," and some other fresh material. The band showed total confidence in the newer stuff, and attempted what Ms. Jones called "some weird shit going on here tonight": Lee Ranaldo playing acoustic guitar for one song (!), Kim Gordon playing slide guitar (!) for another number, and Mark Ibold and Gordon spending half the night as the best twin bass guitar combo since Ned's Atomic Dustbin (that's a joke, kids).

And then the place completely ignited when they did "Kool Thing" to end the first encore, one of their most popular songs and yet a totally unexpected move in this context. They've spent most of the past twelve years or so exploring a very different avenue of music than the street "Kool Thing" is on, exploring quieter double-helix stuff instead of their riffy side. (Gosh, what a different arena they played in, way back in 1990.) I, for one, have not spun Goo more than once in the last five years, although I probably know every twist and turn on the entire record. This was one of the most explosive performances I've seen all year.

Continuing the trend, the group sent us home with two early works, "The World Looks Red" and "Shaking Hell". Wild.

I also have to give props to the lighting director and whoever designed the odd-angled white backdrop. Do they actually take that thing on tour with them, or was it in the tour rider? ("One (1) irregularly-shaped white thing, at least fifteen feet high....") A slide projector shone its beam on the band all night, and they appeared to be lit from beneath sporadically as well. Very cool effect. Probably blinding for the band members themselves.

Boy, am I glad they didn't follow that stupid Village Voice critic's advice. How old was she, anyway?

[Check it out: I first saw Sonic Youth play at this place, in 1992! With the Beastie Boys, no less! And Luscious Jackson. This person was there too.]


FMFM, shortly: Goo