Thurston has officially joined the pantheon of Guitar Gods, right? We can all agree on that? He may have to struggle his way up from minor to major divinity from here, but there’s no question he is at least a league above demi-god, right? And mortal? Are you kidding?

You’ve gotta be pretty sanctified to casually come on stage and lackadaisically tune your guitar and leaf through your sheet music before doing much of anything to start a show. Major deity move. No notes, perfect way for Thurston to come on stage. Actually made everything feel pretty intimate and casual.

But once the show got underway you were reminded what makes him such an important figure, nobody uses a guitar the way he does. Not that scores haven’t tried. It’s just that no one can do it quite like he does. Like a Hendrix or a Clapton, it is like he was born holding one. Watching him coax just the right feedback out of a guitar held head first to an amp like a theremin is one of the purest musical joys one can have.

Opener Hashish showed how time hasn’t slowed him down. Close your eyes and it is still 1989. For some this would seem to be a criticism, but for Thurston it is a compliment. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Songs like Siren showed just how powerful the drone into big resolve move can be. I don’t believe this is something that Thurston himself invented, but he might be the person who perfected it in its current form, like Hydrox to Oreo. Start low, build slowly, explode upward, keep ratcheting it up higher, extend further than people expect, stretch it out, insert feedback, let it all disassemble into an amorphous sonic mess, prolong it, suddenly resolve into something melodic. Man, it feels good to hear something like that done by one of the masters.

In the end the set felt raw and fresh and visceral in a way that many veteran performers can’t still maintain. But Thurston can. It was a remembrance of things that were but also an appreciation of how things are, and perhaps even what is still to come. We are lucky to be living in a world with Thurston Moore in it.