We're thinking Ira Kaplan must have to replace three or four guitars after every tour. He gives new meaning to the term "shredding" with a claw-hammer strum attack and a swing that threatens amps into yet better, bigger and more feedback as he heaps layers of chaos onto the unshakeable constancy of Georgia Hubley's beats and James McNew's chords.

What a show Monday night at the Rialto! Although most songs were from the new CD Fade, the band interrupted their set to accommodate a fan calling for "You Can Have It All" from 2000's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out and, in the encore, "Tom Courteney" from 1995's Electro-Pura. "Autumn Sweater" from 1997's I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One also made the playlist. See the setlist below.

No, there really was no opener. But one-band/two-short-sets is a model we need to see more of. It gave YLT an opportunity to reconfigure instruments on the stage between a mellow set and a soaring rock-out. Bonus: We got a ticket price all their fans could afford.

About those fans: Older ones who stayed home on a work night might be surprised that the all-ages crowd looked mostly under 40, and many way under. Astonishingly, a couple of kids even tried to start a mosh pit! One was trying to get an older fan's cooperation to make a stage dive. No dice, of course.

In the night's only comments from the stage, Kaplan joked about heading to Guerro Canelo for hot dogs (applause) and worrying about being stopped for ID (nervous laughter). "We have a Spanish name" he quipped.

yo_la_tengo_set_list.pdf