Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ 9:30
Guys -- I have something to tell you. I love Karen O and I didn't even know it! Last night's Yeah Yeah Yeahs show -- the first stop on their Show Your Bones tour -- made a believer out of me. I wasn't really that into YYY before last night, so I'm about to make a very bold statement: this was one of the best shows I've ever seen at the 9:30 Club.
Unfortunately for Nicolas Zinner and Brian Chase, this band suffers from GSS (Gwen Steffani Syndrome). The female lead is so magnetic and show stealing, the other band members are eclipsed. Don't get me wrong -- these guys rock. Seriously. But they could be playing instruments that were burning on fire naked and still pale in comparison to the undeniable Miss O.
Based on what I'd heard from YYY, I was expecting a fairly moody performance, full of pouty lips and sullenly hanging bangs. I could not have been farther off. Forgive my infatuation, but the GSS is kicking in and the bulk of this post will be talking about the lead singer. My apologies. The best word I can think of to describe the mood when Karen O took the stage is joyous. She couldn't wipe the ear to ear grin off her face all night, especially when she was jumping and spinning across the stage in effervescent bursts of showmanship. Does anybody out there know if she was ever a dancer? Because she moves like one. Just curious.
The stage was littered with a few toys for her to play with -- a sequined shawl, a full sized towel (note to Scott Stapp: you've got some competition), a disco ball. Each prop, each intricately placed blob of stage glitter on her face, each piece of fringe on her glove pumped up the level of drama without feeling out of place. She was just having so much fun up there! Every face I looked at in the crowd mirrored her grin throughout the show; for someone who doesn't know their song catalog by heart, I was fully engaged in each and every number, start to finish. And that's hard to come by! I even loved the way she screamed and growled through so many of the songs and so much of the banter; her slight frame and huge persona somehow turned dissonance into awesomeness.
The non-Karen O elements of the show weren't slacking either. The sound was clear (despite some points of distortion, that I'm not entirely sure were unintentional). The lights were fantastic (the high-school-dance-spinning-stary-sky-whirly-deal on the last number was a beautifully fitting end). The instrumentals were deft and energetic. Everything about last night's show made one thing very clear: these guys are really happy to be touring again. Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- you've got a new fan.
You can listen to the splendor of last night's show on NPR's fabulous Live Concert Series (also the source of the image used in this article).