Elitist it isn't
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| Ira Kaplan fronted Yo La Tengo Tuesday night at Cain’s Ballroom. |
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By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
4/12/2007 2:06 PM
Yo La Tengo melts reputation with humor, introspection and flamboyance
How Yo La Tengo got the reputation of being an aloof and elitist rock band escapes me.
The trio played Cain's Ballroom Tuesday night and forced the shaking of hipster hips and the nodding of bespectacled heads, at one point calling some girls up from the audience to dance on the stage.
"She asked so nicely," said Tengo's Ira Kaplan, explaining to his bandmates why he instructed security to let four pretty young girls on stage.
Yo La Tengo spent the night alternating between introspective shoegazing and flamboyance, between sweet quiet indie pop songs and ear-splitting cacophony.
Touring behind last year's album "I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass," the band sailed through wild guitar-driven epics from Kaplan and pulled it back for its odd and muted keyboard pop.
Much of the band's material was from last year's album, including "Mr. Tough," "The Weakest Part" and "The Story of Yo La Tengo." They also performed the songs "Stockholm Syndrome" from "I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One."
During the show, Kaplan joked with the audience as the legendary indie pop experimentalists traded off between drums, guitar, keyboards and bongos on various songs.
"We're very glad to be here tonight," Kaplan said. "One small complaint if we can burden you with our problems ... if we could play a place with a bit more history like a Hard Rock Cafe ..."
The joke melted the crowd that seemed to be a little disengaged during the quieter moments of Tuesday's show, especially during a highlight performance of "Electropura," during which drummer Georgia Hubley took over the vocals and guitar.
The quieter moments were nearly drowned out as the crowd chattered away while YLT pulled it back for its subtler numbers like "Electropura."
But snobbish? The band clearly enjoyed its audience and acknowledged them, unlike Built to Spill, which during its concert last September at Cain's Ballroom acted the audience didn't exist.
Maybe Yo La Tengo has that designation because the band has been a critic's darling since its birth in the mid-1980s, making music that defies classification for more than 20 years.
Tengo ended the night with a couple of encores (when the four 20 something dancers were on stage), keeping it going for nearly an hour and a half.
As the night ended, the dancers filed off the stage and the bassist, James McNew, remarked, "that was just like this dream I had once."
Matt Elliott 581-8366
matt.elliott@tulsaworld.com
By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
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