Yo La Tengo @ Roseland Ballroom 9/25

Reservedly Anti-Yo La Tengo

By Jonathan Singer

A mediocre shot of the Black Lips. My Bad.

With the Museum of Modern Art offering free admission on Friday evenings (courtesy of Target), it’s easy for a New York City hipster to find something to do on the weekend. But what about aging hipsters? Enter the Roseland Ballroom on Friday night (September 25), and get the chance to see Yo La Tengo, the Hoboken based independent rock and roll band who returned to the NYC area to play in front of a packed house.

A packed house, complete with a number of balding patrons. But that didn’t stop members of the three-piece band from wearing brightly colored Chuck Taylors. It also didn’t stop the mostly middle-aged audience from cheering loudly after each song, although mosh pitting was kept to a bare minimum.

That was not the case during the opening act, Black Lips, who are making their second appearance in a Stony Brook Press concert review. Appearing significantly younger and playing significantly louder than the headliners, Black Lips’ set of catchy garage rock songs made some kids dance, albeit for a short while.

In addition, the Atlanta based Black Lips seemed to be far away from home, addressing the crowd with “y’all” in between their songs.

In between sets, a crack team of stage technicians set up Yo La Tengo’s equipment, a collection of guitars, bass, drums, effects pedals and a collection of retro looking keyboards. The Daily Show’s John Oliver played the role of “MC John Oliver” for the evening, providing jokes about his British heritage and a recent business trip to the G-20 summit.

But putting aside all the secondary entertainment, the evening’s headliners put on a rocking performance, which at times was literally rocking, and at other points featured signature Yo La Tengo acoustic slow songs.

The band’s repertoire was obviously diverse on Friday night, and band member Ira Kaplan could be seen at times molesting a number of electric guitars, all in the name of avant garde noise rock. In fact, when the band took the stage for it’s obligatory encore, Kaplan remarked that he might not have had a guitar that was still in tune.

Still, the crowd seemed to thoroughly enjoy the performance, which was enhanced by a Wizard of Oz-esque light show, a secondary stage performance that pitted a crack team of visual artists behind a large screen. The result was a series of psychedelic images being projected behind Yo La Tengo, all of them synching up to the band’s music, from their slow jams/ballads to rockin’ tracks.

The conclusion was a solid night of independent style rock and roll – the band even gave a shout out to indie radio station WFMU, thanking them for making the Yo La Tengo song “Mr. Tough” such a hit. While the band’s performance was a far cry from an arena rock concert, for one night both Yo La Tengo and their fans enjoyed having the band perform, and the volume was plenty loud regardless of the venue.

Unabashedly Pro-Yo La Tengo

By James Laudano

Okay. Let me clear this up before I even get started. I love Yo La Tengo. They could have stood up there at the Roseland Ballroom on September 25, cracked some bad jokes, tripped over the wires on the stage and angrily stomped off, shouting “There will be no encore” and I still would have applauded giddily. So, yes, I’m pretty biased. But everything I’m about to say is also right, dammit! So, without further disclaimer…here’s a concert review.

Let’s get the superfluous stuff out of the way, first. The opening band was The Black Lips. They kinda sucked. Whatever. There was also this olde-timey sort of 1930’s band, known as the Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co., playing in the lobby before the opening act. That was pretty cool. Also, in what turned out to be a pretty delicious surprise, the show’s emcee was The Daily Show’s John Oliver. Yeah. Random. But no one except for the Black Lips’ parents cares about that stuff. Yo La Tengo took the stage at around 9:45 pm. Rock!

They opened with “From A Motel 6.” That’s, like, one of my favorite songs! The band members, James McNew, Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley took turns swapping instruments and lead vocals throughout the show without missing a beat. The show was, in part, intended to go hand-in-hand with their latest album release, Popular Songs. A half hour into the set, the band brought out a little string section to accompany them through a few of Popular Songs more notable numbers – namely “Here to Fall” and “Periodically Double or Triple”. Fuckin’ sweet!

I’m going to ditch the phoned in fanboy tone for the rest of this review. It was getting stale, anyway.

Getting back to it: even though Yo La Tengo has been trying new things with each subsequent album for over two decades now, they still – somehow – managed to bring something fresh to the table again with this latest release. They put this on in full display at Roseland. Their pacing is downright magnificent. It seems that each member of the group has the ability to both mesmerize or electrify you with the flick of a switch. Their set list, which featured most of their more popular hits such as “Autumn Sweater”, “Stockholm Syndrome” and “This Is The Day” brought the crowd to both a pulsating, excited mob and settled them down into a relaxed, easy mood. Unlike many shows, though, these transitions were handled seamlessly and without the sluggish let-downs that sometimes accompany such set lists. As is their want to do, they played different spins on some of their more distinct songs. A lilting, acoustic version of the normally Kaplan-driven, feedback song “Tom Courtenay” sung this time by Hubley, was perhaps the evening’s most beautiful and contemplative moment. Conversely, they closed (pre-encore) with a ten-plus minute version of “Blue Line Swinger”, which slowly built up to an absolutely explosive performance. I’m not exaggerating when I state that I was literally shaking a little after that song. That’s how good it was at Roseland on September 25.

Honestly, I can go on about these guys for thousands of words, so I’m just going to wrap this up for now.

I’ve been to a few Yo La Tengo performances and they’ve always been a joy to watch. The way they conduct themselves and interact with fans is refreshing in today’s impersonal, celebrity driven entertainment business. I’ve watched Yo La Tengo do an entire encore of requests from the audience. I’ve seen them sit down on the stage, tell stories, and take questions from the fans, basing their set list on wherever their conversations went. I’ve hung out with them in the lobby of New Jersey’s Wellmont Theater on New Years Eve before a show. They honestly make you feel like they are doing this for you. And while I know most entertainers make claims along those lines, it rarely shows like it does with Kaplan, Hubley and McNew.

Yo La Tengo is a band that’s so good, I almost hate them. I mean that in the best way too. Even though I’m not in the music business, I’m still jealous of them. I’m jealous of their creativity, their talent, their consistency and, perhaps above all, the incredibly affable, warm and humble manner in which they conduct themselves. If you ever get the chance to see Yo La Tengo live, take it. Or, at the very least, pick up a few albums. I don’t want to use a clichéd phrase like ‘You won’t regret it!’ so…just do it.