Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Yo La Tengo @ Maxwell's The 8th night of Chauncey

I've taken a very extended holiday/work/exhaustion break. I don't know why I worry about this. I'm pretty sure there are about 2 monthly readers. To you 2, I thank you! You're very dedicated. Without you, I'm nothing. Jan 1. It is New Year's Day but more importantly the 8th Night and final night of the Festival of Lights. I had heard many, many times about the 8 Nights of Hanukkah when Yo La Tengo takes residence in Maxwell's, a popular rock club in their hometown of Hoboken NJ. I always seem to forget about it but thanks to my pal Herb, it was not going to happen this year.

Opener Lois came on songbird style, proudly from Olympia WA, making nervous banter between pleasant songs about offering to sell off Chris Stamey's guitar or pissing off Luna in previous opening spots. The highlight was an acapella version of The Zombies' "The Way I Feel Inside." A nice, quaint appetizer for the evening.


Each night of the fest features an opener, a comedian, and then Yo La Tengo trying to cover every track from their back catalog along with a wealth of covers and other of goods. The comedy act for the night was Fruit Boots, who were referred to multiple times as "NYC's premiere rollerblading duo." Fruit Boots were funnier than you can possibly imagine with their supposed origins at a trick convention in Central Park, to their group of ridiculously funny "trick packs," think a duo doing trick's like The Dude's landlord Marty's performance dance cycle in The Big Lebowski. This after they skate on stage with a bag of grapes and ask the crowd, "Who wants a grape?" and throwing out grape's one by one to the crowd. Hysterical.


After Fruit Boots, Yo La Tengo's frontman Ira Kaplan said they had a "surprise" guest they met at the Roskilde Festival in Germany. The group was called "Matter of Trust."

Well, they proceeded to play a hilarious, extended version of a track called Matter of Trust," a vaguely familiar track that was previously recorded by a famous Jew named Billy Joel. The band was actually made of a bunch of comedians. According to Yo La Tengo's blog it was: "Todd Barry on drums, Jon Glaser on bass, Tom Shilue on backup vocals, James (of Yo La Tengo on guitar, and Jon Benjamin on lead vocals. "

Jon Benjamin just stole the showing playing and singing in a German accent, getting fully enthused to a punkish level by the end with screams "Just a matter of Motherfucking trust." Wow.
All this and Yo La Tengo didn't even get on stage in full force yet.

I have to admit my somewhat limited knowledge of the lengthy Yo La Tengo catalog, but it didn't matter. My primary knowledge is I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One" The set was perfectly created peaks and valleys of sound, pure energy from the band as they swapped instruments and being spolighted as the vocal leads. Ira and James started with a duet version of Madonna's "Holiday," a version I'd rather hear 100 times over before I ever hear Madonna again. They followed that up with Gary U.S. Bonds's "Seven Day Weekend," which was adapted to "Eight Day Weekend." They really took this holiday theme to heart.



The set was filled with rarities as they called it. The one thing the avant didn't do was talk. They just piled on the sonic orgasmization. Some soft tracks, some blaringly loud, and I was happiest with a magnificently serene version of "Autumn Sweater." There were lengthy instrumental, quick punky numbers, graceful Nico like works sang by drummer Georgia Hubley. They closed the set with the the obligatory cover of the Beatles "Eight Days a Week."

Some more surprises came during the encore, including a couple tracks sang by Lois backed by the band and the reprise version of "A Matter of Trust" by those crazy Germans.
I wish I knew some more track titles, but I don't.

This show had the most unique feel; it was so friendly and communal while brilliant and awe inspiring. I thank the band for putting so much work into this performance. It truly shows. And if you can get to the set of shows, I highly recommend it.
A truly great way to ring in the 06.


Pictures and some data from:
Yo La Tengo Hanukkah Show Blog

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