Noisy jams build to a Sonic boom

Sonic Youth is the premier jam band for non-hippies. The sound isn’t groovy or soothing, particularly for the uninitiated, and is often as unsettling as it is invigorating. This is what we’ve come to expect from the New York City group, which held nothing back during its show at the Henry Fonda Theatre on Monday.

Songs often began with a delicate, arch melody, subversively simple and odd, before slowly building in speed and intensity to a storm of noise. Bassist and guitarist Kim Gordon sang her “Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand-cream,” layering beats and slabs of guitar, her sharp vocals slicing through the din.

Singer-guitarist Lee Ranaldo led “Skip Tracer,” from the 1995 album “Washing Machine,” another driving, raucous excursion deep into the jet stream. Other songs, many from the band’s new “Sonic Nurse” album, could be delicate while bristling at the edges.

Sonic Youth is a quintet of avant-garde punks who have thrived for two decades sounding like no one else. And despite its seat at the foundation of alternative rock, this isn’t music for moshing.

The newest member, guitarist Jim O’Rourke, even wore a tie.

Aggression was expressed in other ways, often while harnessing wild spasms of feedback, as guitarist-singer Thurston Moore climbed his amplifiers in search of the next level of beautiful noise. The band has soared higher on earlier tours -- 1998 at the Wadsworth Theater, 1999 at the This Ain’t No Picnic festival -- but Sonic Youth is always dependably challenging and inspired.

The band played virtually none of what could be considered its “hits,” and waited until the very end of the second encore to unleash the ‘90s radio single “Kool Thing,” a strangely obvious choice after such a relentless 90 minutes of noise rock. Just one more surprise from a band known for them.