Yo La Tengo concert review
This Yo La Tengo live review is of their 2007 September 12th gig at Concorde 2, Brighton. Yo La Tengo are a legendary indie rock band who formed back in 1984 and are hugely popular with critics and other musicians, less so with the mainstream. The reasons for this are likely down to their truly experimental style, where they literally experiment with different styles of music, all the time. Their albums feature pop songs sitting next to Sonic Youth style noise attacks, electronic numbers and songs so quiet they are barely there. Its almost impossible to explain what kind of music this band plays, at it is so diverse.
I was introduced to Yo La Tengo over five years ago by a chef at a pizza restaurant I worked in, Paul Freemantle (so if your reading this Paul, leave a comment, so we can get back in touch), and had since always meant to go catch them in London but never got round to it. This made tonights gig all the more special considering it was in my home town. I had no idea what to expect except the unexpected and the band didn’t disappoint, certainly not conforming to any standards, opening with a Postal Service style electronic number featuring bongos, and then moving on to a 15 minite pulsing beat punctuated by short sharp shocks of distorted guitar. One moment a light hearted 60’s style pop song, then a grunge rock number. Mr Tough was one highlight, a perfect instantly catchy classic ditty, Little Eyes with its Beatles esque sitar style guitars another.
All members of the band are able to display various talents, swapping effortlessly between instruments. Diminutive female drummer Georgia Hubley sings with a hauntingly beautiful Cat Power style drawl, her husband, the slight and curly haired Ira Kaplan takes centre stage on vocals, keyboards and lead guitar and gentle giant James McNew adds incredibly strong vocals and plays bass and bongos.
The skills the band has are in no doubt, each track tonight stood alone as a superb piece of live work. The varying styles however do not a cohesive gig experience make, especially if you are not entirely familiar with all of the songs. Cutting from pure noise to pop and back again can be quite disconcerting as you get into one thing and then have to move into another entirely different frame of mind. It also lead to lots of talking over quieter tracks which was a shame. I would have preferred it if styles had been grouped together more, but it would seem Yo La Tengo are not the band to be arranging things to please the crowd, after 20 years they, like fellow band Sonic Youth can do whatever they want, and the chance to see a band this established more than makes up for any lack of the usual comfort and of course boredom we get at gigs these days.
Mr Tough
Little Eyes
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To learn more about Yo La Tengo, get some of their records and other great bands go to Resident Records in Brighton, the best record shop in the world!
For more gigs like Yo La Tengo in Brighton check out the gig promoter Melting Vinyl
Ira is the guitarist, James is the bassist. Thanks for the review though.
Doh! Sorry about that, changes made.
…Georgia is married to Ira! enjoyed the article…
What a confusion!
saw them last year at the forum and bush hall, and they just keep getting better and better. highlights for me were ’story of yo la tango’ and ‘farmer’s daughter’ at the end but the whole set was awesome. there is no other band like them.
thank god for them. one of the very few bands worth listening to.