EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: Yo La Tengo
No tag for this post.EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: Yo La Tengo
Story by Mike Tressler - Photos by Michael Lavine -April 13th @ The Vogue
Was it really 2003 when Yo La Tengo last came to town? It doesn’t seem that long ago. Boy does time fly. I had just really listened to my first Yo La Tengo album that year (the then-newly released “Summer Sun”) and decided to go see them at the Vogue. I really wasn’t expecting much from these guys who constantly get labeled as some sort of experimental/art rock band. Furthermore, the “Summer Sun” album was a pretty light and airy affair and I was afraid that I was going to be about as bored seeing Yo la Tengo as I was the one time I saw Over the Rhine.Much to my surprise, Yo La Tengo put on a great live show. It was chock full of energy and I was wholly entertained. I’ve always been amused at bands that do the “Change the Instrument” game on stage - you know, where the drummer for the first 3 songs gets up and picks up a guitar and the guitarist drums for two or three songs before they swap again. But no band has ever played the “change the instrument game” more often than Yo La Tengo. Though my memory is getting hazy, I seem to recall that every member played the drums at least once and that they went through no more than 2 songs before they swapped instruments. I suppose when you only have three members in the band and you are trying to cover a broad range of styles, the band has to be flexible in its approach.
Yo La Tengo are touring behind their new album which is certainly a top contender for album title of the year: “I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass”. The album bounces between light and airy mood music and bludgeoning guitar anthems. It starts off cheerfully with light numbers such as “Beanbag Chari” (which can be legally downloaded from this link). By the seventh song, they decide that light and airy isn’t getting it done, so they bring the distortion and fuzzed guitars for the 10-minute groove “Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind” (This song can be legally downloaded at this link). The album calms down from there, only to rise again for the 11 minute-plus Sonic Youth-style epic “The Story of Yo La Tengo”. Yeah, this album will translate very well to stage.
I drug my cousin along to the 2003 Yo La Tengo concert and though he had never heard of them before the show, he e-mailed me last week to ask if he should get me a ticket to Friday night’s show. That’s a pretty powerful statement right there - a guy sees a band once and four years later he’s eager to go see them in concert again. Times New Viking will open the show.
– Related Link: http://www.matadorrecords.com/yo_la_tengo/index.html
