In fairness to Yo La Tengo, they showed up on time and ready to go; it was just me who was late - late enough for the bouncers, in a venue not noted for friendly bouncers, to chide us for our tardiness. I read elsewhere that the gig started with Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind, which I’m sad to have missed. I wandered in to find the place packed, in time for Georgia on vocals for the mid-gig acoustic set. I have to say, I love, love, love YLT and I’d go see them play if they came to Dublin every month.
Georgia doing the vocal duties on Tom Courtenay:
I love their work-a-day attitude. I think perhaps their enduring popularity with us aging indie kids is that just seem to be so straight-up and sincere about what they’re doing. They don’t aspire to be musos or high-faultin’ artistes - they’re a bunch of solid, hard-working artisans. Comfortable doing their thing, and happy that you came see them, but they would be playing in any case, even if you never showed up. If they’d never had any success, you know that they would still be playing clubs and bars around their home town of Hoboken, New Jersey, just as happy. There’s a truth behind the old joke about YLT being a record-store clerk’s favourite band (as parodied lovingly by The Onion) and indeed I see a tweet today from Ireland’s finest record shop:
“I think Yo La Tengo are possibly one of the greatest live bands in the world, ever.”
- @RoadRecords
…which doesn’t surprise me in the least.
I love they way YLT wander around the stage, with different people playing different instruments depending on the song, and even changing instruments mid-song. Messing it up, and keeping it fresh, probably again more for themselves that for the audience. A song you might know from a particular album, could in the live context be sung by Ira instead of Georgia, or vice versa, and they’re not going to apologise for that. YLT audiences seem to know this and even respect it - there aren’t too many bands that would dare to mess with their classics this way - can you image many other gigs where the drummer sometimes does the singing instead of the actual singer, and this not be a contentious topic for the fans? At one point, Ira hands his guitar to Gill the roadie, with hand gestures indicating that the latter should just get on with it and play. I’m sure every guitar-playing member of the audience was green with envy.
Here’s another video, again stolen from missnormalee: Periodically Double Or Triple running into Stockholm Syndrome:
The standout moment (actually several minutes) for me was Blue Line Swinger. To be honest, if they had only played one song last night, I would have been happy so long as it was that one. It’s really got all the constituent parts of a YLT song - the simple repeated drum refrain, the five-minute noodling with guitar versus amp, the slow build from quiet to loud, Georgia’s little-girl voice emerging sweetly out of the chaos, and all the lovely noise.
They played two encores, all low-key and relaxed, then shuffled off, seemingly happy with the first night of the European tour. Yo La Tengo - the indie band cultist’s indie band cult rolls on.
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Thanks for this Jim. Now it doesn’t feel so bad that I didn’t get my kitchen pass
I like Yo La Tengo: they have the quantity and variety to match the quality of their music and even with so much stuff are worth listening to over and over again. Their music provides a flavour of every kind of high end rock indie, soft electronica that you’d ever want to listen to without seeming to self-consciously adopt styles etc. Your description of the rather casual way they have with their own songs is definitely one of their better qualities. There’s no hype or pomp or daring to be cutting edge. Simple songs mean as much to them as carefully arranged and crafted clever pop-songs, and with so much recorded material they have plenty of both.
That said, the only album of theirs that I’ve listened to a lot is Summer Sun, which was a very pleasant piece of work. The two tracks from Popular Songs I’ve listened to are great though and now, of course, I’m going to have to go out and get the rest of them (don’t know why I’m telling you all this).
Last time I saw them though was when they were touring Summer Sun, it was a long, varied, jocular, romping good fun gig in the Olympia. The next day I was in Dublin Airport waiting for a flight out to Iceland, but the flight was delayed. I remember noticing the three members of the band coming in the waiting area, recognizing them from the night before. They acted together like a small gang of college kids romping around campus between lectures, excited and chatty in a kind of jumpy way. After all those years they seemed to still enjoy each others company. Weird.
Mind you, that might have been just how I saw them at the time. I’d already been waiting for a couple of hours. They breezed in, and breezed out almost as quickly I thought, as their flight was on time. I had to wait many many more hours, eventually getting on the plane 9 hours later at midnight, pretty drunk from drinks bought with the complimentary vouchers provided by the apologetic airline, desperate for a seat, fighting against other passengers as we ran down the gangway to what we imagined was a Ryanair sized plane, (having been told that seats weren’t allocated it seemed we were all eager to avoid being stuck near the toilets at back) only to find ourselves rushing through the door and, slightly embarrassed, falling into a jumbo jet.
Jim, fantastic stuff. I’m a big fan of them, in particular Painful… sorry not to be there…
Much as I like both Yo La Tengo and Road Records, only someone who has never been to Pluggd in Cork would be unaware that Road is only our second best record shop.
Donagh, this Iceland trip seems to have left a mark on your psyche and you are blaming YLT unfairly. I suggest you make amends by listening to their new album immediately.
WorldbyStorm, sorry you missed it, hope you have a good excuse.
Mark P, Cork? Never heard of it. Is that in the southside? I know there’s a Cork Road out by the Red Cow, is Pluggd out there somewhere?
That’s normally my own attitude towards the alleged “real capital”, Jim, but I have to make an exception for Pluggd on Washington Street. I’m told that the people who run it are originally from Dublin though, so if that’s true it shouldn’t challenge your faith in the natural order of the universe too much.
Mark P, I’m only messing of course. I know where Pluggd is on Washington Street, but was it formerly known as Comet? Or is Comet a different shop, also on Washington Street?
Jim, I think it’s in the same premises that Comet was in, but it’s run by different people.
Lads sorry to be pedantic but it’s actually Plugd. All hell broke loose today on the PRoC Forum when Jim from said shop posted “Plugd Closing”. Thankfully it was just an unfortunate misunderstanding.. New readers start here: http://www.peoplesrepublicofcork.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170174
‘Plugd’ - spelling duly noted, Fanning Sessions. So there’s a ‘Jim’ in Plugd who is not the same Jim that used to run Comet back in the day? I remember a Jim in Comet keeping me tickets for a Fatima Mansions gig, me being late getting to Cork, and finding my tickets with the barman in the Jury Box (Jury Room?). Anywaaay, cool blog there Fanning Sessions; I wasn’t aware of that resource. Good work. I’ll be working my way backwards through that.