This Thursday featured plenty of quality music acts performing in Bloomington, but the real draw for me was the Yeasayer show at The Bluebird. I had seen them this summer at Lollapalooza, so I knew their stage show had plenty of promise, but it also seemed shaky enough to collapse at any moment. The band members had to supplement their playing with prerecorded music (nothing unusual), but sometimes the levels would get out of whack and the live music would be eclipsed by the prerecorded sounds, or vice versa. Of course, this may just have been a consequence of playing on an outdoor stage on a windy day. After The Bluebird show, I have to assume that Lollapalooza was an anomaly.
Washed Out came on stage somewhere around 9:30. I was completely unfamiliar with them, but they ended up being a nice discovery. The group was a quartet with drums, bass, and two keyboardists/samplers, one of whom also sang. The band's name actually described their sound pretty well: lots of pleasantly swirling samples, as if something were being washed out to sea. The bass player was excellent and took a leading role on their songs. The keyboards played pretty simple patterns, and it seemed like their purpose was to create textures rather than melodic material. The whole set was mellow and hypnotic. I wouldn't have minded a few more songs.
Yeasayer came on after a short pause. It was obvious from the first song that their stage show kinks had been worked out. The live music and the prerecorded pieces were nearly seamless, although it was a bit jarring to hear backing vocals when no one on stage was singing. Singer Chris Keating was electric; his voice was warm and soothing one second, then ready to crack with emotion the next. Guitarist Anand Wilder also contributed vocals, although his singing was much more subdued and hypnotic. Bassist Ira Tuton wove all the sounds together, adding in many of the falsetto backing vocals. Many of the passages that sound like they were performed on synthesizers are actually Tuton's bass run through some kind of octave transposer or processor.
The band's set was mostly culled from its recent album, "Odd Blood." That album was much more synthesizer and beat centered than their debut, "All Hour Cymbals," but it was an appropriate choice for The Bluebird. The audience wanted to dance, and Yeasayer gave them the opportunity.
Some of the stand-out performances were "Grizelda," "Rome," and one of the best songs off the album, "O.N.E." An interesting addition was "Tightrope" off of the Dark Was The Night compilation. That song was possibly the best song on the album (that's saying something when competitors include Yo La Tengo, Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, and multiple Grizzly Bear songs). It was interesting to hear the group play a song that was stashed away on a compilation, although it's really too good not to play.
The band also made an interesting choice by opening with "The Children" from "Odd Blood." The song opens the album and is probably its most experimental number. Chris Keating's vocals are multiplied, raised, and lowered, although the original pitch seems to be lost, giving them an alien quality. The song sounds more like Radiohead than a pop band, although that's not even a very apt comparison. On the album, the song segues directly into "Ambling Alp," my favorite song on the album.
The transition from dark, experimental music to unabashedly joyous music is perfect on the album. I really hoped they would replicate that moment on stage, but it was foolish of me to expect them to use up their best number so early in the show. They saved "Ambling Alp" for their last song, and it was really the only logical place. The audience at The Bluebird sang along the whole way, and singer Chris Keating let them take over occasionally. I have no idea what the lyrics mean (or even what they are, for the most part), but right then it couldn't have mattered less. It was a great couple of minutes, and the only way to properly end the show.
Words by Brian Marks
Pictures by Julia Rickles
