Yo La Tengo pic by Stephanie F Black
The Barbican is a harsh concrete construct in the middle of
the City of London
And yet, onstage is a haven of tranquillity, a little grove
of wooden trees, surrounded by monitors swathed in lush foliage. This is the
small bower from within which Yo La Tengo will play the first of two sets this
evening.
The trio sit comfortably amongst the trees with a dappled
sunlight effect playing around them. Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew
have been together for thirty odd years and have always kept themselves fresh
with experimentation. If they want to chill out in an artificial grotto, so be
it.
This first set is a quiet, introspective collection of
songs. Voices are hushed, Georgia
At the intermission I leave the hall and find surprisingly
large numbers of unfortunates who have wandered into the Barbican from the cold
streets outside, secreted themselves in this out of the way spot and passed
out. One in particular has made an heroic attempt to light a cigarette, but has
gone unconscious before he can complete the task. The sad fag balances on his
lip, the lighter held limply in his hand.
For the second set, the trees have been moved to the rear of
the stage behind a large drum kit. The wall of foliage disguising the monitors
makes the small area within which the band will operate more forbidding, like a
military dug out. This will be the setting for the loud part of the evening.
Yo La Tengo are touring to promote their new album ‘Fade’
and it is characterised by a number of longer motorik-influenced pieces like
“Ohm”, which ticks along like a metronome, building in urgency as it
progresses.
The band is as comfortable with raw noise as they are with
the quieter material of earlier. Ira
swings his guitar wildly round his head and spends five minutes at a time
generating feedback solos.
However, it’s never just noise for its own sake. There is
always melody and structure here.
Yo La Tengo occupy an almost unique position. There are elements
of contemporaries such as Sonic Youth, but this is married to the much more
pastoral and tuneful rhythms of Talking Heads or David Byrne. I’m struck by how
unisex the audience is – mostly young couples in their thirties and early
forties enjoying a civilised night out.
Well, mostly. The stage times have thrown a sizeable
minority who roll up at around 08:45 and find that they have missed about an
hour and a half.
The band announces that they will play a song in tribute to
their being in London Burundi
A number of encores follow, including moving versions of
‘Take Care’ and ‘Our Way to Fall’.
It’s been a lovely evening. I note the increased numbers of
sleeping street people on the sofas outside (it’s a veritable colony) and make
my way off to my own warm home.*
* After getting lost and schlepping around various levels of
the Barbican for about five minutes.
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