yo la tengo

Last night I went downtown with Rob France (2nd year) to see yo la tengo perform at the Gibson Lounge. Going into the concert I was unsure of exactly (I had an idea) what 'freewheeling' meant in the tour name: the freewheeling yo la tengo. The venue was also something neither of us had any particular knowledge of, other than it was attached to the guitar factory and right next to Beale St. We walked in, waited in line, then entered the lounge. Black table cloths, candles on tables, and old people drinking wine quickly showed me that I really was in a 'lounge' and probably wasn't in for a night of noisy rock from the band.

Some southern dude named Kurt Wagner played a half hour long acoustic set as a precursor to yo la tengo. No one really seemed interested in him and he pretty much knew that, too. I disliked his singing voice - half the time his words trailed off as if they simply ran out of sound - and his semi-classical guitar stylings weren't the 'rock' that I am interested in. At one point, as I was getting 2 PBR drafts (classy) from the bar, he half read a note from someone in the audience that basically told him he should stop playing because he was wasting people's time. After that I kind of felt bad for the guy. He was singing about his feelings/life in front of people who just didn't give a shit.

Yo la tengo came on around 10pm. The lead guy (Ira) had an acoustic guitar, the drummer (chick named Georgia) was playing with 'brush' style drumsticks (or whatever they are called to muffle the sound), and the bass dude (James) had a regular electric bass. They went pretty quickly into their stuff and played one or two acoustic songs before starting the Q and A part of the show. In between songs, or every couple of songs, they answered questions from people in the crowd and then played whatever song was part of the question.

The highlight of the night for me occurred after someone asked about the meaning of the song 'Stockholm Syndrome'. After the bass player answered (something about how it was a note to himself 10 years down the line) , the band launched into it with way more energy than anything they had played up to that point. Being one of my favorite songs from 'I can hear the heart...' I was relieved that I finally knew something. As they approached the very noise /electric guitar laden freakout, I was stumped as to how they'd perform it. To the entire room's delight and surprise, an abrasive wall of distortion came out of Ira's guitar and he just went to town for a couple of minutes before the group finished the song. They did this distortion trick once more in the night when they played 'Pass the Hatchet' and Ira jammed for about 7 minutes while James and Georgia held down the repeating rhythm patterns. These two teasers kept me from having any real interest in what they played acoustically, especially if the particular song was written by some other band. After 'Pass the Hatchet' I raised my hand to ask about the second of static on 'We're an American Band' for two reasons. First off, I was hoping they'd do what they did with 'Stockholm Syndrome' and just tear the song apart, giving me more of the rock I wanted. Second, I realized that would be the one time ever that I'd find out an answer to that question (and how cool would it be to get the answer from the people that wrote the song?). They didn't call on me, unfortunately.

After the show, Rob and I decided that we were both pretty disappointed. Neither of us got enough of what we wanted - straight up rock - from the band. Provided Ira is playing with an electric guitar in his hands, I'd love to see them again if I get the chance, though.