TRANSMISSION 3 Sonik Tooth Consumes Denver Matthew McLaughlin/Post Evergreen   Sonic Youth's May 19th show at the Ogden Theater in Denver was hyped as a venue for their new material. As a diehard fan of ten years, I took this with some apprehension. The new cd, A Thousand Leaves, had only been in my hands for six days, leaving me with little time to digest their new efforts. The series of instrumental/experimental ep's are relatively new as well, and here in the Southwest we aren't on a major artery of new music. So I had little exposure to most of Youth's newer material, aside from seeing them in Seattle last summer at Bumpershoot, where they performed a thirty minute instrumental set. True to the hype, Youth played almost entirely new material. I regret that I cannot remember the names of the songs they played, as they were too fresh in my mind. The stage set was simple- plain white cloth sheets stretched across the rear of the stage, with lights bounced off of them. On the roudier songs, strobe lights pounded the band and audience. They opened with an instrumental dirge, a radical smattering of transcendent feedback and pounding heavy drumbeats. True to form, they pushed aside the stigma of opening a show with the loudest, or the fastest, or the most well known. This was pretty damn obscure stuff they were playing, reminiscent of Sonic Death, yet with more maturity. The free roaming guitar riffs, instead of degenerating into incomprehensible grumblings, played around a consistent theme. The songs were much more structured, yet with plenty of space for the experimental. The one and a half hour show continued to alternate between songs from A Thousand Leaves and tracks from their instrumental discs. I am unsure if the sound was a result of the venue's system or if it was engineered by Youth, but it was incredible. Steve and Kim pounded my chest, while Lee and Thurston's wailed around the room. At times, I was able to clearly discern and spatially separate each instrument, while at others the sounds merged and formed into one. Thurston's stage antics seem to be a thing of the past- he never once knocked his mic stand over, and maintained a serene composure throughout. Gone too was the huge box stuffed with guitars which required hours of tuning. I saw him play two guitars during the entire show, yet he maintained perfect pitch even on the more dissonant tunes. Lee played maybe two guitars as well. They have obviously tightened up quite a bit, yet they have maintained the edge of cohesion. This newer material brought to mind the bebop jazz of the Beats, free-ranging improvisation, yet focused on a central theme. Almost all of the tunes varied from hard attack to a soft gliding tone. On introducing " ", Thurston remarked that it was nice to play a song for Allen Ginsberg in a theater that he almost certainly had attended at one point. The Ogden was big in the bebop days, as was Denver. Neal Cassady has been ghosting these roads for years, and it seemed appropriate to hear Sonic Youth's angry melodies howling down the mad streets. In many ways, Sonic Youth is the bebop band of the Post-generation. Their imrpovisational style bears a strong resemblance to that of Charlie Parker, while their droning feedback reflects a distorted, disillusioned Sarah Vaughn. As for old material, Thurston stated they would be "giving it a rest for a while." I was hoping for Schizophrenia, or something off of Daydream, but the only old song they played was an intense rendition of Death Valley '69. This tune they ran loud and long, as tight as I have ever heard it. The transitions were seamless, played almost too perfectly, until the end. A twenty minute, electifying jam ended this tune, which was the first song of the encore. As an "old school" Sonic Youth fan, I would like to have heard a few classics. However, the new material represents another turning point in their evolution. I would much rather hear this stuff than anything off of "Dirty," maybe their least inspired album. As for the crowd, they seemed completely apathetic. At an all ages show, you can usually expect the younger kids to mosh it up a bit. There was some of this, but in all the crowd seemed stunned. Perhaps transfixed is a better term, or maybe the fans were disgruntled at not hearing older material. At the Ogden, if you want to drink you have to go up to the balcony and stay there for the rest of the show. This left the floor with no alcohol, which could have been a contribution. In all, the show was amazing. Sonic Youth never fails to push the boundary between music and noise, and the newer material represents both a step back to their roots and a step forward in delineating this boundary. While their stage energy may have toned down, their music is much more refined. As for not playing any of the older songs, I can respect that. I am perhaps a bit jaded, having lived in New York City, where I once saw them play a three hour show of nothing but old songs. But don't listen to me, go see them for yourself. There is nothing else like it.