Brandon has been a fan for a very long time, but for some reason they never really grabbed me. I have nothing against them - they just don't really do it for me the way they do for him. When I started searching around to find out who was opening, I discovered that there was no opener, but instead the band would be playing two distinct sets: acoustic first, short intermission, then electric. I thought it was odd that this wasn't really advertised anywhere and I only figured it out by checking the venue's Twitter feed and then good old setlist.fm to see what they had played at recent gigs. Brandon, however, wasn't surprised by this unique setup, as the band is prone to these types of stunts. Apparently, during a previous tour, they had a wheel onstage that they would spin and would then do whatever it landed on - including acting out a scene from Seinfeld. Well, alrighty then! On to the show.
Yo La Tengo generally have two disparate sounds: dream poppy at times, but then jangly discordant at others. So, this split set actually made a lot of sense and gave us a taste of this duality in a much more overt manner. They started out nice and smooth, with lush arrangements of their already dreamy songs. Sometimes when we are at a show for one of Brandon's bands, I find myself sort of zoning out and feeling disconnected, kind of wondering how many songs are left. This time, however, I was really getting into the sound and didn't even care that I didn't know the songs. They were just washing over me in a cozy, almost hypnotizing manner, and I caught myself just leaning back and smiling contentedly after every song.
In fact, I was surprised and slightly disappointed when the acoustic set was done, because I was having such a lovely time. Brandon said he almost felt like we were all sitting around a campfire and they were just playing an intimate show for friends. He described it as having a sort of innocent feel, almost like some sort of farewell show. The beautiful cutout trees that made up the set really lent itself to this atmosphere. After a short intermission during which they moved things around a bit, they returned for the electronic portion of the show.
Brandon felt that in spite of the fact that their many years together as a band showed in the lines on their faces, it was belied by their youthful exuberance, each member of the trio jumping back and forth between instruments, whaling away on keyboards and drums alike.
He said that there wasn't much difference between this performance and the one other time he has seen them, some 20 years ago.
This also brings up an interesting shift in Brandon's lifestyle - how strange is it that counting this show he has only seen Yo La Tengo, a band he lists as one of his top 10 faves, twice.
Again, he was slightly confused at the omission of many fan favorites, but they did not fail to impress and entertain.
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