Yo La Tengo has been regularly making music for the last 30 years – and though this might be ample license for them to lean back and crank out half-hearted re-treads, Yo La Tengo has never been the group to get stuck doing the same old stuff. After all, this is the band that, with their fourth record in 1990, pivoted sharply from their established jangle/fuzz sound to put together a disc of other bands’ old stuff: the mostly acoustic covers album Fakebook. After 25 years of distortion freakouts, hushed ballads, and scores to underwater documentary films,Yo La Tengo are back with a new set of covers in Stuff Like That There. At the Corona Theatre, however, these songs were anything but half-hearted. Instead, the Hoboken Three, along with original guitarist Dave Schramm, snuggled up close with the crowd to share their love and encyclopedic knowledge of music.
On their last tour supporting 2013’s Fade, Yo La Tengo split the performance into an electric set and an acoustic one. This time out, however, the venue saw the band adopt an even more stripped-down configuration. With no special guests, the band served up two sets, acting as their own openers. Supported by Schramm’s clean electric guitar, Ira Kaplan stuck to an acoustic six-string, flanked by Georgia Hubley’s standing drum kit and James McNew – his first time touring with an upright bass.
Using sheet music stands, the band had set up a backdrop of canvas paintings – and standing in front of these, playing acoustic covers of early R&B hits and lost punk classics from the 1980’s, the show often took on the shared intimacy of a coffee shop performance. That’s not to say that Yo La Tengo play like amateurs, but part of the band’s appeal has long been in their authenticity and approachability. Even when shredding tunes like “Sugarcube” and “Cherry Chapstick” the New Jersey trio have never come off as untouchable rock-stars – and tonight, reconfiguring their own classic barn-burners (“Double Dare”, “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind”) to this acoustic setup, Yo La Tengo felt closer than ever before to the Corona crowd, who cheered between songs while staying refreshingly whisper-quiet during the sets.
Though the sets had been largely stacked with covers from Fakebook and Stuff Like That There, there were definitely some surprises along the way. The Minutemen’s “Corona”, best known to some as the theme to the Jackass TV show, popped up as a Neil Young-esque tribute to the evening’s venue. The Velvet Underground, one of Yo La Tengo’s early comparisons, was given some love with their lost live gem from 1969, “Over You”. Welcome as these were, the true highlights were to be found in watching the band slip into their own songs, with a standout like “Tom Courtenay” successfully making the jump from triumphant distortion-fest to quiet theatre ballad.
During the first encore, Ira made sure to take a song request from someone who couldn’t yell quite as loud as the people around her. She asked for “Damage”, a heartfelt homage to missed connections and mumbled goodbyes, elevated by James and Georgia’s floating harmonies. The members of Yo La Tengo have always been musicians who reach out to underdogs and smaller voices, and with a second (!) encore singalong of fringe icon Daniel Johnston’s “Speeding Motorcycle”, the band ended the show with one more cover – not out of complacency or creative drought, but to level the playing field for all lovers of music.
Yo La Tengo setlist
Set 1:
Tried So Hard [Gene Clark cover]
From Black to Blue
Rickety
My Heart’s Not In It [Darlene McCrea cover]
Corona [Minutemen cover]
Naples [Antietam cover]
Automatic Doom [The Special Pillow cover]
I’m Your Puppet [James and Bobby Purify cover]
Double Dare
Barnaby, Hardly Working
Somebody’s in Love [Sun Ra cover]
Set 2:
Deeper Into Movies
Butchie’s Tune [The Lovin’ Spoonful cover]
Over You [The Velvet Underground cover]
I Can Feel the Ice Melting [The Parliaments cover]
Awhileaway
Can’t Forget
Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind
Friday I’m in Love [The Cure cover]
Stockholm Syndrome
Griselda [The Holy Modal Rounders cover]
Ohm
Our Way to Fall
Encore 1:
Damage
For the Turnstiles [Neil Young cover]
Tom Courtenay
Encore 2:
Corona [Reprise]
Speeding Motorcycle [Daniel Johnston cover]
Review – Dan Corber
Share this :
