Yo La Tengo Rocks the Birchmere
Posted on October 24, 2007 - Filed Under Reviews, Music, VA/DC/MD Happenings |
Indie-rockers Yo La Tengo graced the Birchmere stage in Alexandria, Virginia, last night with a melodic and occasionally scratchy acoustic set sprinkled with various tunes from their impressive 23 years on the music scene. Their current tour following their latest album release titled “I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass” is called their “freewheeling tour” and it’s a great way to get to know the band.
Jack Rose was the opening act for Yo La Tengo and he really hit the whole “freewheeling” sound perfectly. His guitar sound is eerily familiar, like the musical equivalent of re-reading On the Road by Kerouac and even though you know what’s going to happen, you are still lonely and comforted at the same time. I don’t know a lot about guitars, but I think Jack, Rose not Kerouac, uses steel strings to bring out that hollow howling sound of his rambling tunes that make you think of Bluegrass with some classical-style progressive chords reminiscent of the Orient.
The Yo La Tengo set was a mixture of questions and requests and it created an atmosphere that was very intimate even for the Birchmere, which tends to have you wedged ass-to-ass with the stranger at your table anyway. Hilarity ensued when Ira decided to sing a song from another band, The Dynamite Brothers (I think this is the right band), so he asked a someone on tour with them to go get his laptop so he could look at the lyrics while he sings. James, the bass player, went ahead and kept fielding such questions as, what are your favorite Simpson’s episodes, while Ira looked for the lyrics and his wife, Georgia, the drummer, just sat there grinning. They were even gracious enough to play Sugarcube as their finale. All in all it was a great show, a great tour idea, and I hope they come back to the DC area soon.
Set List:
The Weakest Part (opening song), Deeper Into Movies, Damaged, Cherry Chapstick, Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House aka “The Simpson’s” song (sung by Georgia), Black Flowers, Circus Strong Man Joins the PTA, I Hate Hate (Razzy Bailey) “Dynamite Bros.” song, Sugarcube (finale), and Be My Little Baby by the Ronnettes (encore)
Thanks for the additions, G. Friday
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3 Responses to “Yo La Tengo Rocks the Birchmere”
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Thanks for the review!
Some notes:
Opening song - The Weakest Part
“Simpsons song” = Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House
“Dynamite Bros Song” = I Hate Hate (Razzy Bailey)
Thanks for reading and thanks for the set list additions…I added them to the original post.
nice website!