The end of Ron's Place, New Haven's only remaining new wave venue is near, according to the rumors. While this may not produce volumes of sadness in many people, it was sorely lamented to me by members of several bands who have been frequent performers at the small club.

I knew that I couldn't let Ron's, which for over two years has been, the center for youthful and experimental rock groups, close without paying one final visit. So, last Saturday night I dropped in to see Disturbance, a New Haven band that has been the subject of several good reports to me in recent months.

Disturbance is similar in style to the hard hitting British bands of the mid-60's, the type you might see in a late-night black and white flick filmed in some English industrial city. But Disturbance adds to the formula with a good deal of instrumental freedom and stylistic experimentation.

Rhythm guitarist Tom Hosier states that his work and that of lead man Marc Buttock (that's what they told me) is influenced by such diverse makers of music as Grace Slick's proto-psychedelic Great Society and innovative American composer Charles Ives. Add a bit of Athens, Georgia party band to this hodge-podge, and you have the sound of Disturbance. It may be eclectic; it is definitely interesting.

Buttock's origins in Birmingham, England, have contributed much to the rhythmic structure of Disturbance's music. In this country just three years, Buttock is responsible for the band's dance orientation, just as other Birmingham-bred artists, among them the Beat, Duran Duran, and UB40, have spearheaded the revival of British dance music.

At Ron's, where they alternated sets last Saturday with the Furors, another veteran New Haven band, Disturbance energetically. and for better or for worse delivered a selection of their own material, penned mostly by Buttock and Hosier.

Instrumentals accounted for several or their originals. One particularly interesting if overly predictable number was "Postcard of the Great Wall." "Postcard," which the members of Disturbance singled out with some pride when I spoke to them during the break featured an Oriental facade over a vague reggae backbeat, a novel combination.

Other notable originals in the set were "Speeding in the Dark," a rather gory song though possessed of a good hook, and a workingman's song called "Graveyard Shift."

The sole cover of the set that I caught was a fine version of the Arthur Lee and Love classic, "Seven and Seven Is."

Throughout the show, the technical abilities of Disturbance on their various instruments were not altogether consistent, both guitarists in particular suffering, lapses. However it is to their credit that the cause of this was the experimental nature of the band; most of their mistakes came when trying for something beyond normal reach. The effect was laudable.

Disturbance had a fairly solid rhythm section in drummer Mark Becker, playing a near-antique kit, and Bud Lyon, brother of the featured Lyon sisters of the Eight to the Bar trio, on bass. Both Becker and Lyon built a strong dance foundation for Hosier and Buttock to work from and in general helped to balance the band's sometimes intentionally dissonant sound.

After the show, I sat with the members of Disturbance in a VW Rabbit, listening on the headphones of a Sony Walkman to a good-quality demo tape they recorded recently, while Hosier related anecdotes of their 30 or more evenings at Ron's, including the harrowing night that saw the entrance of two thugs brandishing handguns. Hosier told of dashing into Ron's men's room, his plugged-in guitar still around his neck, and glancing occasionally through cracks in the door to see if the coast was clear.

This particular type of difficulty probably won't follow Disturbance after Ron's closes, but their work schedule may suffer, with only several college dates and a tentative opener at Toad's for the primordial surf band, the Ventures, now on the calendar.

A slot at Toad's, though, will be prestigious step up for Disturbance; very few Ron's bred bands have made the transition. As they do with much of their music, the members of Disturbance seem happy to take the chance.