Sonic Youth [ tickets ] long ago learned to tame dissonance and feedback and turn it into an unparalleled brand of pop music, and by now the New York noise purveyors have perfected it to the extent that it feels effortless.

Two-and-a-half decades in, Sonic Youth's music doesn't come across as groundbreaking as it once did, but it still offers plenty of rewards--which the band demonstrates on its new album, "Rather Ripped," and again proved in concert Monday night (7/3) at the Sacramento club Empire.

Songs from "Rather Ripped" made up the bulk of the night's 100-minute set, starting with "Incinerate," sung by guitarist Thurston Moore, and "Rheena," delivered in breathy style by his wife, bassist Kim Gordon. The pair of songs serve as an excellent summary of the Sonic Youth sound: the swirling interplay of Moore and Lee Ranaldo's oddly tuned guitars, which often break down into fits of buzzsaw noise held together by the relentless drumming of Steve Shelley. On this tour, the group is augmented by former Pavement bassist Mark Ibold.

The new songs were followed by a loose take on "(I've Got a) Catholic Block," from 1987's "Sister," which was a treat to longtime fans. Later in the show, the band dusted off "Schizophrenia," from the same album.

The night's first full-on blast of trademark Sonic Youth noise came four songs into the show, during the Gordon-fronted "Pattern Recognition" (from 2004's "Sonic Nurse"), and it didn't disappoint. With purple strobe lights flashing wildly, the lanky Moore looked like a mad scientist, coaxing squeals and growls from his guitar, a stack of amps, and effects boxes. At one point, it appeared that Moore's guitar was levitating, and he later jumped off the stage onto the club's packed floor.

Though the forceful personalities of Moore and Gordon dominate the band, it's always been evident in Sonic Youth's concerts that Shelley and Ranaldo are the guts of the group, responsible for keeping its challenging experiments musical. So while the noise can splay far from the body of Sonic Youth's songs--as it does in "Pattern Recognition"--the band can always change on the dime and reel it back in.

The group--and the crowd--got a breather with the low-key "Do You Believe in Rapture," from the new album, a song that sounds like something Sonic Youth's New York godfathers, The Velvet Underground, might have produced if they'd stuck around.

Ranaldo ably handled lead vocals on two of the night's songs, the new album's "Rats" and "Eric's Trip," from 1988's two-disc Sonic Youth masterpiece, "Daydream Nation." "Eric's Trip" was probably the night's highlight, a tidy package of noise, fury and fun.

And fun is probably the key to Sonic Youth's longevity, and why the group is still making important, unique music. It's clear that the group is still enjoying its job after all of these years, and that rubs off on the fans and fellow musicians, who, to this day, continue to mine the band's sound to create the foundation for their own new music.