After 20 years, it's usual for rock'n'roll bands to get a little predictable, to keep on the right side of their fans. Not so Sonic Youth. In the past few years, their visits to Britain have been defiantly adventurous affairs, with sets consisting of the current album performed in its entirety, or an hour of improvised noise, or last year's set of contemporary classical pieces. The experimental prerogative, they implied, sits ill with the concept of crowd-pleasing nostalgia.
However, this year's model of the Youth, or the "Radical Adults" as they wryly style themselves now, arrive in a much more equable mood - and, in the case of Lee Ranaldo, waving a Wimbledon tennis flag. Their recent 'Murray Street' album is one of the year's best, and one of their best, too, with an accessibility and rock classicism notably absent from recent beautiful but difficult releases. It's no surprise, then, to hear cheers at the start of new SY songs for the first time in years - as Thurston Moore sings the purposeful incantations of 'The Empty Page', or Ranaldo kicks off the grand reverie of 'Karen Revisited' (here retitled 'Karenology' and obliquely introduced as a John Cage cover).
What is surprising is the unusual sight of Sonic Youth giving their patient fans what they want. The expansive qualities of 'Murray Street' have induced many comparisons with 1988's awesome 'Daydream Nation', and the late '80s music that made these mind-expanding avant-punks, for a time, the most exciting rock band in the world. In an unprecedented act of generosity, they play great swathes of it tonight: Ranaldo's scything 'Eric's Trip'; Moore's unfeasibly lovely 'Candle'; Kim Gordon's snarling come-on, 'Kissability'.
Best of all, the sight of SY playing this astounding music for the first time in years never feels like mere revivalism, a bid to recapture the loyalty of wavering followers after last year's show was marred by hecklers. Rather, it seems that the likes of 'Cotton Crown' lock in perfectly with the new music, that Kim Gordon is dancing like a wild empowered cheerleader through 'Making The Nature Scene' and 'Kool Thing' out of enthusiasm, not obligation. It's a mark of their current strength and confidence, too, that the highlight comes with a song from 'Murray Street', 'Rain On Tin', as Moore, Ranaldo and Jim O'Rourke steer their guitars through a grid of fantastically intricate arpeggios. They've written their own 'Marquee Moon', it seems. And the way it looks from here, neither their past nor their future holds anything to be afraid of. What an excellent place to be.
