http://www.boston.com/news/globe/liv...+%2F+Arts+News
Sonic Youth tones it down to great effect
By Marc Hirsh, Globe Correspondent | September 6, 2006
Let's take a moment to praise Sonic Youth's guitar techs. They may have the single hardest backstage job in the business, working as they do for a band whose every song requires a unique tuning. They don't just prepare the instruments (each one differently), they have actual guitar cues, for crying out loud, making sure that the right one gets into the right hands at the right time.
Were it not for them, Sonic Youth might not be the great live band it is. At the very least, if Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore were themselves responsible for making quick changeovers to the correct guitars, they'd be a lot more frazzled.
At Avalon Sunday, Sonic Youth laid down the bulk of the strong new disc ``Rather Ripped " alongside a handful of older numbers. In doing so, the band avoided much of the noise and squall that has become synonymous with its name over the past 25 years.
Sure, Moore and Ranaldo went at their guitars with drumsticks, EBows, screwdrivers, and other guitars. But such experimentalism is, ironically enough, a standard part of their performance tool kit by now, as is bassist Kim Gordon's dancing and spinning with abandon as the music reaches freakout intensity. (Pavement's Mark Ibold picked up the slack with a second bass.)
This time around, Sonic Youth was mostly just a band playing songs, and it was a guise that suited it well. ``Teen Age Riot " and ``Incinerate " were propelled by rolling guitar lines and leaping, ecstatic riffs, and Moore's half-whispered vocals atop Steve Shelley's hyperactive heartbeat drums gave ``Or" a celestial sparseness.
Best of all was the almost indescribably gorgeous ``Do You Believe In Rapture? ," built on pinging, churchlike harmonics. It was a less assaultive take on the band's quest for new sounds, and if the lack of pure noise meant that Sonic Youth didn't ripple, it could still glide.
Wooden Wand opened with an agreeably sleepy set of vaguely rustic folk-inspired songs driven by gentle electric guitar and drums.
