Sonic Youth @ Manchester Academy

Thurston Moore strolls onto the stage laconically and slaps the microphone. Lee Ranaldo checks his guitar. And then, ’No Way’ comes with a burst of enthusiasm; "I don't care and don't wanna hear it" rattle the lyrics. It's a stroppy two-fingered opener to the audience, crushing all expectations. The subtext? 'Look at little old us. Nothing special. We’re just accessible garage rockers’.

This slow burning introduction may seem reserved, but it’s merely a prelude to sensory overload that we’ll be experiencing later in the encore(s).

Kim, adopting the microphone for ’Sacred Trickster’, slips into ‘energised crowd pleaser’ mode, assured and fuelled with energy. As ’Tom Violence’ breaks the guitars climax, pulling against each other with an immaculately balanced tension. The piercing high-end sound offers sweet relief from the abrasive low end, while the shrieks from Mark Ibold's guitar add a sense of vibrancy. The levels are higher, the sound more robust.

’Leaky Lifeboat’ reminds us of their punk influence, of the protest and the aggression. For the first time tonight Sonic Youth are performing at the level which makes them revered, which continues to draw in fans, which points to the death of pop music as Modernism. They walk a finer, more sophisticated line than many post-purple patch groups. There are threads of thought, of novel experimentation, that run throughout tonight’s set, suggesting that the band are still looking for new ways to create democratic sound, for places where contrasting ideologies can reside side by side.

’(I Gotta A) Catholic Block’ is repeated. Moore, an hour on from his humble entrance, is now dominating not only the sound but the show itself. Tonight in Manchester he is the ringleader of the tormentors.

Throughout the set the band tease with dissonance and distortion, offering it piecemeal. ’Massage The History’ ends under the orange hue of the stage lamps, flashing as muted fireworks. The trauma of 2010 comes to a close inviting the promise of milder heartache – tonight it’s the softer, more delicate tracks that shine the brightest.