And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out

Thursday's show was the one I'd been waiting for for quite some time, the one I'd had tickets sitting around for for nearly two months, the on for which I had to find an additional attendee since Tim bought one too many tickets: Yo La Tengo. I was pretty excited to see them, since I've been enjoying their music quite avidly for a while now. The thing that concerned me was what side of them would show. Yo La Tengo has a few modes, with the two most prevalent being the soft, atmospheric vibe of much of their more recent output and the oddly laid-back noise of their early stuff. Needless to say, I'm an aficionado of the abrasive yet soothing early material, so when I listened to the new album I was a little worried by the predominance of the softer tones there. As luck would have it, I found that my fears were hardly justified – and Adam, who prefers the other side of Yo La Tengo, had his fill of “his Yo La Tengo” too.

The first noticeable thing when Yo La Tengo took the stage was their odd stage presence – despit their subdued air, which was heightened by Ira Kaplan starting behind a keyboard and James McNew being seated facing ¾ away from the audience, they still had an easy charisma. It seems to have something to do with the air of comfort they exude – they seem to always know what one another are doing, and every one of them plays any given instrument (each band member played every available instrument over the course of the night, except that Georgia Hubley didn't play bass). Further, the little bit of banter they had with the audience was remarkable down-to-earth and friendly, adding to the placid, easygoing projection. Their music took on some of the same qualities, but went far beyond. While there was plenty of presence from the quiet atmospheric side of things, the noisy, improvisational tracks really carried the show. This became readily apparent as soon as they got to the opening track off their new album, “Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind”, a 10-minute mess with exactly two bars of bassline repeated over and over under increasingly wild guitarwork. It was simply stunning, and I was a bit amazed McNew didn't show any signs of boredom after ten minutes of the same two bars. The excellence went on throughout the long set, which was structured to stay in style for a bit, then flow to the next. They began mellow, cranked up the noise for a few songs, then played a long mellow interlude before using the absolutely perfect “Sugarcube” to transition into a final noise segment, including two lengthy, chaotic jams that were the highlight of the show. They rounded off with a chill encore, followed by a second encore of a rousing cover of the Silver Jews' “Bad Politics” and what they claimed was a doo-wop number by Sun Ra, though I was a bit incredulous. Regardless, it was a truly great show.

Setlist:

Let's Save Tony Orlando's House

I Should Have Known Better

Pass The Hatchet, I think I'm Goodkind

Stockholm Syndrome

Sometimes I Don't Get You

The Weakest Part

Beanbag Chair

Mr. Tough

I Feel Like Going Home

Nowhere Near

Sugarcube

Artificial Heart

Watch Out For Me Ronnie

The Story of Yo La Tengo

I Heard You Looking

Encore 1:

(not written down, included "Autumn Sweater")

Encore 2:

Bad Politics

?