Thurston Moore ratchets up the energy at Union Transfer

Raveling through a simple chord sequence, Thurston Moore stood stage right at Union Transfer. He delivered a spaced-out, psychedelic opening with fellow guitarist James Sedwards on the left, each with one hand low on his fretboard, and the other hand turning and turning with a near-hypnotic quality.

It was beautifully weird, calming, a resetting of our brains before charging off with the cinematic "Forevermore," from the band's only release so far, The Best Day.

A sense of returning, of compositions turning back, characterized many tracks on a night when a few, including "Forevermore" at 12 minutes, deserved to be mentioned with Television's classic epic "Marquee Moon," while surpassing that track in length.

Moore has seemed to be pushing the boundaries further in recent years, through his love of free, improvised music and his other projects, like the avant-garde, experimental Chelsea Light Moving. On Wednesday night, he seemed to be going out ever farther into the ether.

With the opening track of the night, the bass reverb of Deb Googe (of My Bloody Valentine) added grit to the two churning guitars while Steve Shelley (formerly of Sonic Youth) sharply cut time on drums. The buzzing, shifty guitars brought to mind quintessential Sonic Youth. In "Forevermore,"

lyrics and guitar lines seemed to render the track a post-punk dirge for all things past, tinged with assertive optimism as the guitar shift at the chorus added emotive force and density.

Next up was "Speak to the Wild," another track from The Best Day, source of most of the evening's tracks, more intense and immediate than in the recorded version. Meditative soundscapes shifted to more jarring, thrilling climes, wherein those earlier moments filtered in through trilling notes, Shelley's sharp spikes, and Moore's powerfully weighted vocals.

As Moore and company swam farther out into space, the night was awash in subcurrents. Some frenzied moments seemed to shred anything superfluous - then we shifted back to cooler waters. Crazed, rapid plucking by Moore, Sedwards, and Googe turned quickly to languid, relaxed play at any moment. Lyrics called for us to "extinguish flames of earthly desires," a Zen invocation.

The ratcheted-up energy served both "Germs Burn" and "Detonation" well. On the former, the opening was rolling Americana in sharp, melodic notes before that beautiful, forceful churning came back and Moore's vocals, much heavier than the recorded version, colored the song in punk. In both cases, the performance made me a much bigger fan of the songs.

Midway through, the band previewed "Turn On," from the forthcoming album Rock 'n' Roll Consciousness. It ticked all the night's artistic boxes: melodic, shifting, frenetic, meditative.