Yo La Tengo with Eleventh Dream Day
Bowery Ballroom, New York (November 26, 2000)
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Yo La Tengo
Bowery Ballroom, New York
November 26, 2000 |
Near the end of the set they guaranteed the capture of their victims, when they broke into "Interstate." The song itself is engaging, but it peaked as a phenomenal Rizzo noise-rock guitar solo filled the air. Eleventh Dream Day ended with the fantastically catchy "Way Too Early On A Sunday Morning," from 2000's Stalled Parade, which could give the Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" a run for its money in the best-song-about- Sunday category.
Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan, and James McNew (a.k.a. Yo La Tengo), took the stage after a brief break between sets. As the fuzzy sounds of their instruments took shape into a song, the crowd realized that they were invoking an American Sunday night tradition, The Simpsons theme song. However, there was a twist, as there always is with Yo La Tengo. The theme was no longer the standard Danny Elfman fare, but rather an art school romp, like what might have happened had Matt Groening gone to the New School For Social Research instead of Harvard.
The enjoyable set continued as the band drew heavily from And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out and I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One. The musical ingredients included rock'n'roll, a sprinkling of lovely percussion-keyboard-vocal endeavors, and a garnish of Kaplan's infectious and funny comments. The set included a tribute to their parents as well as a block that paid homage to the Fall season, with included "Autumn Sweater" and "Cherry Chapstick" back-to-back. The music began to wind down with the lovely duet stylings of Kaplan and Hubley singing "On Our Way To Fall."
But, the crowd was demanding, the band was responsive, and all were rewarded with two -- that's right, two -- encores. During the first, Kaplan invited Rizzo back on stage and the two men dueled using the art of noise as their weapons. At one point, Kaplan was so enthralled by the mess of sound his guitar was creating that he flailed about like an epileptic. For the second encore, Yo La Tengo took advantage of the Christmas season. Kaplan reflected on the lack of good Hannukah songs, proclaimed the greatness of "Rock'n Roll Santa," and then led the band in the punk rock Christmas carol. As Yo La Tengo left the stage for the last time, with the merriment of Christmas in the crowd, I was left with visions of guitars ringing in my head.
A.K. GOLD | A.K. Gold lives in Washington, D.C., where she slaves away for a non-profit organization and constantly compares everything to New York City or Chicago. She's earned her "cred" as a college radio and pre-1960 country music DJ, committed indie label street teamer, sporadic zinemaker/contributor, retired mail-order filler and occasional freelance writer. From time to time, she publishes Anecdotal Evidence, a per zine that will some day be considered for the National Book Award, or possibly not. If you want to buy a copy, or desire to write to her for some other reason, email criticgirl@hotmail.com.