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Yo La Tengo Setlist Tour Dates
Apr
10
Dublin, Ireland
3Olympia Theatre
Apr 12 Manchester, UK Manchester New Century Apr 13 Bristol, UK SWX Apr 14 London, UK The London Palladium Apr 18 Amsterdam, Netherlands Paradiso Grote Zaal Apr 19 Rotterdam, Netherlands LantarenVenster Apr 20 Hamburg, Germany Uebel & Gefährlich Apr 21 Copenhagen, Denmark Bremen Teater Apr 23 Cologne, Germany Gloria Theater Apr 24 Prague, Czech Republic MeetFactory Apr 25 Berlin, Germany Huxley's Neue Welt Apr 27 Paris, France La Cigale Apr 29 Barcelona, Spain Sala Apolo Apr 29 Murcia, Spain Warm Up festival May 2 Madrid, Spain Warner Music Station May 3 Bilbao, Spain Santana 27 May 4 Bordeaux, France Rock School Barbey Read More
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A sold out show and the crowd showed up early for the headliner was also the opening act. That’s what a band can do after releasing 19 albums over a 37-year span.
How best to describe Yo La Tengo, a band that may have not achieved commercial success as much as the respect of its fellow musicians and critics alike. All Music has a pretty good description:
Based out of Hoboken, NY, Yo La Tengo was formed in 1984 by the husband and wife team of Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley. After a run of bassists, James McNew joined in 1992 and stayed.
Why isn’t Yo La Tengo a salsa dance band? Funny story! The origin of the band’s name comes from a 1962 baseball incident where two New York Mets players ran into each other on a fly ball for Venezuelan shortstop, Elio Chacón, had no idea what centerfielder, Riche Ashburn, was saying when he shouted: “I got it.” (“Yo la tengo.”)
Ashburn decided to learn a little Spanish to avoid future collisions.
Yo La Tengo may not play many cumbias, but they have been described as musical omnivores with a penchant of melding different musical styles while covering songs from other bands.
They started the evening on a rather mellow vibe. Even after a fan shouted out “We love you!” Kaplan only responded with a subtle “Thanks.” They were there mostly to play, but Kaplan did wonder where the First Ave pinball machines had gone. Then he tried to remember when that would have been.
A highlight was a Kaplan guitar solo during “Apology Letter” from the group’s latest album This Stupid Word. It started out, distant and soulful, as if deep in some musical harbor before moving into a noisy crescendo then back to the distant fog.
Hubley finished the first set singing “Miles Away” establishing an atmospheric tone in which the lyrics melded into a repeated incantation of: “Nah… Nah… Nah…”
After a break the trio started the second set with Kaplan turning his guitar upside down and pounding the strings with his fist. From there, the noise and distortion became amplified.
Like a set of utility baseball players, the trio then kept switching positions. For “Stockholm Syndrome” McNew sang lead; on “I Should Have Known Better” he played guitar. Then he moved to join Hubley on percussion for a crowd favorite “Autumn Sweater” from the band’s seminal I can Hear the Heart Beating as One.
During “I Heard You Looking” Alan Sparhawk from Low nonchalantly stepped onto the stage and manned the keyboard to join in on the jam session that had Kaplan switching between three guitars. It was by far their longest and best song of the evening.
For the encore, Mark Freeman of NNB was invited to play along to Neil Young’s “Time Fades Away”. Then Sparhawk rejoined with his guitar to help with Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”.
Then after all the noise and distortion, Hubley stepped up to the mic to sing a lullaby: “Dreaming” by Sun Ra. She sang with an understated sweetness to send the crowd home.
Yo La Tengo |
Yo La Tengo |
Alan Sparhawk of Low |
Yo La Tengo |
Yo La Tengo |
Yo La Tengo |
Yo La Tengo at First Avenue, Minneapolis (26 Mar 2023) |
| dave ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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