Band: YEAH YEAH YEAHS Who: Alt-rock trio from New York,
fronted by the gorgeous Karen O.
Album: SHOW YOUR BONES – 2nd full-length. Released: 22 March 2006 – 20 years ago today.
Pitchfork said: “New York band follows its debut album
‘Fever to Tell’, this decade’s gold standard for transcending
indie hype, with a record that offers only one side of the
group’s multifaceted sound.”
TUTV: Seems like Pitchfork only listened to one side.
Trust me, this is a totally underrated LP.
After 25 years of music in this Century Rolling Stone Magazine
looks back and picked their 250 favourite tracks.
As expected hip-hop-pop is the big winner pushing guitar rock into a figurant
role although Radiohead (with surprising track choice, The White Stripes (with
their classic cracker) and Yeah Yeah Yeahs at No. 2 (completely unexcepted)
are in the Top 10.
NYC’s flamboyant pop-rock trio YEAH YEAH YEAHS fronted by the utterly arresting Karen O (born Karen Lee Orzolek) released their splendid, critically praised 4th LP,
the first in 9 years, named Cool It Down, one year ago.
And as usual, artists take the road to promote new stuff. For YYYs the bigger part
of their tour was planned for this summer with several festivals and some indoors.
Last Monday they stopped in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) to perform in one of my
all-time favorite venues, the historic, very beautiful, and cosy (wherever you are, you
have the feel of an intimate club) Paradiso, which was originally a nineteenth-century church.
As expected, when the band came on, Karen O last of course, it was like the 1500 spectators saw a Goddess flanked by her knights coming down from heaven. A louder-than-war reception, and It wouldn’t get any more quiet from there on. K O, as usual, dressed in a spectacular multicolored outfit, is like a resistless magnet, vocally and visually. Everybody (sure, me too) was focused on her, while band members Nick Zinner (guitar), Brian Chase (drums) and their touring keyboardist also looked more at her than
at the crowd (they’re actually timid guys). It’s called charisma, as we know it.
The set (see list below) was a balanced mix of tracks from their 4 albums with striking stunner Zero and tearjerker Maps as standout moments. The sound was picobello, the ambiance was euphoric, only big smiles everywhere. But for me, in the end, it wasn’t a perfect concert. Why? They didn’t play two of my absolute YYY favs, also two of their best-known ones, which they did play at most of their previous shows.
Two solid gold singles/classics (to my ears): their smashing debut single Date With the Night (from 2003) and Despair (from 2013). Did it matter? Yes! It’s like having a fantastic dinner, and you know that you’re most-liked dessert will make the night complete. But the dessert doesn’t show up and nobody knows why it doesn’t. Bummer.
– DESPAIR –
– DATE WITH THE NIGHT –
SETLIST
1. Spitting Off the Edge of the World 2. Cheated Hearts 3. Black Tongue 4. Shame and Fortune 5. Burning 6. Zero 7. Fleez 8. Soft Shock 9. Blacktop 10. Mars 11. Gold Lion 12. Maps 13. Heads Will Roll
NYC’s flamboyant pop-rock trio YEAH YEAH YEAHS fronted by the utterly
charismatic Karen O released their wondrous, critically praised 6th album,
the first in 9 years, named Cool It Down last September.
They’re touring in Europe at the moment.
Tomorrow they perform at the legendary Paradisoclub in Amsterdam,
originally a nineteenth-century church. Every big name in rock played
there (before getting massively famous) over the past 55 years: Pink Floyd,
The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Cure, Blondie, Oasis,
Arctic Monkeys, PJ Harvey and countless more. And it’s still a place where
every up-and-coming artist wants to play at least once.
It’s one of my favorite concert venues ever.
And as a big YYYs fan I’ll be there, in the front,
at a gig that sold out the day the tickets went
on sale last March.
This is what to expect.
SETLIST
They played in France yesterday.
I made a Spotify playlist of their
set to prepare for tomorrow night.
To remind us of that album, the band released a lush version of
the lead single SPITTING OF THE EDGE OF THE WORLD featuring
the vulnerable voice of Perfume Genius. Beautiful, just beautiful.
YYY: “There haven’t been many duets in the history of Yeah Yeah Yeahs,
maybe we were waiting for a unicorn like Mike to come around. Having a
chance to try a different rendition of ‘Spitting Off the Edge of the World’ with
Mike (aka Perfume Genius) was always on the wishlist. Our producer wanted
to bring the track into Lee Hazlewood territory as far as lush arrangements
were concerned, there is some influence but in the end it’s very much a
stand alone sum of its parts. Enjoy!”
Band:YEAH YEAH YEAHS Song/clip: MAPS
More than 80 million views on YouTube,
more than 152 million streams on Spotify
From YYY’s grand debut album FeverTo Tell released 20 years ago (29 April 2003).
Album artwork
Video: “The clip shows the band playing in an audition in a high school gymnasium, with different light filters changing the color of the room. Karen O’s crying in the video was not staged. She explains: “They were real tears. My boyfriend at the time (Angus Andrew) was supposed to come to the shoot – he was three hours late and I was just about to leave for tour. I didn’t think he was even going to come and this was the song that was written for him. He eventually showed up and I got myself in a real emotional state.”
