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Sam and I went to see Yo La Tengo Thursday evening, Feb 16th. You could be forgiven for assuming this is some sort of mariachi band with a name like Yo La Tengo but you’d be quite wrong. They’re a three piece rock band from New Jersey. They’ve been together since the mid-80’s and although they’ve never achieved wide-spread success, critics love them and they have a hardcore following. Sam and I were neither of those things but we’d heard of them and started listening to their music when we heard they were touring.
With a hardcore following, no opening act and a general admission show, we assumed there would be a long line outside the Neptune Theatre before the doors opened.
The Neptune is in the U-District part of Seattle and has standing room for 1,000 people, although the balcony has seats. It’s one of our favorite venues for live shows with clear sight-lines no matter where you are. It’s not too small and not too large. One of those “just right” things.
Anyway, we arrived about 30 minutes before the doors opened and to our surprise there was exactly one other person in line. The beauty of being in the front of the line is the ability to get a spot on the fence in front of the stage. This works because of course you get to see the band up close but for me it’s also great because I can lean on the fence during the show. You know, old back and all that… The downside of being up front is the sound mix tends to not be great. You’re right in front of the guitar and bass amps but the vocals come from speakers over your head so the vocal sound goes right over the top of you. I’m ok with that. On this night the mix was ok but there was a little feedback issue that plagued the sound here and there.
As you would expect from a band that’s been playing since the 80’s, these guys are probably in their 60’s. You might think that means they’re ready to pack it in but you certainly wouldn’t know that from the show.
Georgia Hubley is the drummer and first off, it’s not that common for the drummer to be a woman, let alone this unassuming woman who looks like she could be your grandmother. She’s a force though and from the first beat held the band together all night long. I’ve not seen this before during a concert but at one point she was using some brush style sticks and a piece of wood or something broke off and flew across the stage. She was pretty serious most of the time but that got a little smile out of her.
James McNew plays bass (and sings, they all sing). Most of his bass lines are simple but the way he and Georgia keep time is amazing. They can keep the same beat going for the whole song while Ira destroys his guitar.
Then there’s Ira Kaplan. He does vocals on probably 50% of the songs with the other half split between James and Georgia. He’s also the lead guitar and the loose cannon in the group. Some songs, especially ones where Georgia does the vocals, he’s pretty laid back, but on plenty of other songs he just unleashes the guitar. The group overall seems pretty mellow but Ira puts some spice in it, as in he’s totally unhinged. You can see the guitar tech in the background of the photo above and that guy has a full time job. Ira switches guitars on almost every song and the guitar tech was constantly re-tuning guitars. According to Ira’s Wikipedia page, Spin magazine proclaimed Ira the world’s 97th best guitar player in 2012, which cracks me up. How did they decide this? Did they line them all up and have a guitar strum off? No matter whether he’s number 96 or 97, he definitely knows how to pull some noise out of six strings.
One other little fun fact about the band is that Ira and Georgia are married, for what it’s worth.
Anyway, it was a great show and made it worth the fact that I had to get up at 4am the next morning…
