Yeasayer review

http://3dotmag.com/yeasayer-and-sinkane-at-the-cats-cradle/

Yeasayer and Sinkane at the Cats Cradle

Yeasayer is an interesting band to follow.  They rarely stay in one caliber, changing significantly each album.  They gained recognition on their album, “Odd Blood”, released in 2010, and more notably for their anthem-like and overly danceable single, “Ampling Limb”.  While their newest record, “Fragrant World” was more experimental than “Odd Blood”, it was within the realms of pop, and was sure to ad ire to art music geeks and indie hipsters equally.  But it didn’t seem to go over to well with critics, being too pop for indie, and too weird for radio.  Which, what critics don’t seem to understand, is actually unbelievably refreshing.

So, I was excited to see these guys.  And after I read that the band would be accompanied by an art project, and they would be having some sort of weird light show with it, I was even more interested.

We arrive to Cats Cradle before the opener, Sinkane started, and the place was already packed.  Turns out it was actually sold out.  This show was a rescheduled event because the first show was canceled, due to the guitarist Anand Wilder having a baby.  Well, he didn’t actually have a baby, but his wife did.  It seems the rescheduling actually did well for ticket sales.

Yeasayer band member, Ahmed Gallab, conveniently enough, fronted the opening band, Sinkane. Right off the bat I noticed that, like Yeasayer, they had a knack for genre blending. And not unlike bands like Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Ween, and Built To Spill, I could see both indie rockers and hippies enjoying this equally. Then I looked around.  There were people with painted faces doing noodle dancing.  If you are not familiar with noodle dancing, it’s a hippy dance, where they fling themselves about as if someone was shaking around a wet noodle. Unlike Yeasayer, they seemed to lack the knack for truly blending genres, exploring one at a time, going from psychedelic rock that sounded way too much like Grateful Dead and Steve Miller Band, to Kool and The gang-esque dance offs. While Sinkane was full of talented musicians, they ultimately came off looking like a wedding reception band.  The most annoying part of their show for me was at one point the guitarist said, “It’s good to be here.  This very venue changed my life four years ago…” and then never finished his story!!  They just went into another song.   How the hell did Cat’s Cradle change his life?

In between bands the venue played Bobby Brown, which is ironic because I remember saying to my girlfriend earlier that while most indie bands bring back the new wave 80s’ there seems to be an 80s’ influence that is just ridiculous, and I mentioned Bobby Brown.  So I’m thinking there is a connection.

As the lights dimmed, a computer voice came over the PA saying “Chapel Hill let’s make some noise” and we did.  Yeasayer hit the stage and started the show with “Blue Paper”, off of “Fragrant World”, which worked well as an opener, with the end of the song being much more immediate and dance-y live, whereas on record the ending seems to be mostly bleeps and blips.  At this point I’m noticing the lighting, and the fact that, that’s its mostly mirrors, and very little light work, or projection.  It was basically as if they built a mini- dance club on stage, which was equally ridiculous and awesome, and reminded me once again of the Bobby Brown era.  Their second song, Henrietta, also off of “Fragrant World”, was also another dance for pleaser.  At this time singer, moved up front, and acted as a front man for most of the show, adding to their appearance a more rock feel and taking them out of the overly self important art rock realm.  From this point on the started playing a pretty even mix of all three of their albums, starting with “2080”, from their 2007 release, “All Hour Cymbals”, and “O.N.E.” from “Odd Blood”, which sounded more playful live.  By this point the mirrors were all lit up with neon surroundings.  It looked very similar to Tron, which was bizarre, and a little bit awesome.

During “Wait for the summer” two girls jumped up on stage and danced around.  The band didn’t really react to it.  Then after the song was over, singer Chris Keating said, “Was there just some girls up here?  I’m used to smelling dude all the time and suddenly it smelt really nice up here”.  Then they ended their set with “Ambling Alp”, which was very well received.  They left the stage for a few minutes and came back for an encore.  They played “Tight Rope” and “Folk Hero”.

While listening to Yeasayer’s recordings, you pick up random instruments here and there, but the interesting thing about seeing them live is seeing that most of those sounds are actually done on guitar.  It was interesting to see how they portrayed what seems to be made for album songs.  Seeing Yeasayer live and hearing them on record, are two vastly different things, but seeing them live is highly recommended.

Written by Michael Wood