Opening with a typically lengthy version of Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind, a capacity Dublin audience is given its first reminder in many years of what Ira Kaplan’s idiosyncratic style of guitar playing is like. Specifically, he folds himself almost rag-doll like over the instrument as he gets it to emit a variety of screeches and wails. Alongside him, then, James McNew stands totem-pole like in place, as he repeatedly strums out the same basic but entrancing bass chords.
The band then go on to mix it up for a while between material from their new record such as Avalon or Someone Very Similar and Periodically Double or Triple and older numbers such as Stockholm Syndrome and Tears Are In Your Eyes (featuring, of course, Georgia Hubley on lead vocals). The highlight here, though, is probably Mr. Tough, where McNew and Kaplan share the falsetto duties. On the whole, it is good, but the healthy suspicion remains that there is much better yet to come!
The show then moves on to its next phase, which is a three-song set of acoustic numbers and includes an admittedly lightweight sounding version of Tom Courtenay. It is probably not quite what the audience has come for either.
However, there is no need for any anxiety, as the following thirty minutes see the band darken the stage, put the head down, and relentlessly let rip with their overwhelming flow of guitar-fuelled indie pop. At some stage, Kaplan looks like he is trying to frenetically paddle a canoe upstream with his instrument. Included in the mix here are a firm audience favourite in Autumn Sweater, as well as the brilliant new More Stars Then There Are In Heaven. On the whole, the experience could be fittingly called the “Yolacaust”. It comes as little surprise then when the band walks off to rapturous applause at the end of it.
Arriving back out for the encores then, Ira Kaplan appears to take a request from the audience – “because you said please!” – and the band play Little Honda, before continuing to stoke the fires with the bouncing audience-participation number You Can Have It All. They then opt to conclude with the quieter Our Way to Fall before leaving the stage again. However, the crowd is having none of it and whistle, cheer, and clap for a good five minutes before the band re-emerge once more. This time they opt for a couple of their cover songs from Fakebook, with The Scene is Now’s Yellow Sarong and NRBQ’s What Can I Say.
Two hours in all. It was not close to enough.
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: Yo La Tengo
