Yeah Yeah Yeahs Complete Comeback with Triumphant New York City Show: Review, Photos and Setlist
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The post Yeah Yeah Yeahs Complete Comeback with Triumphant New York City Show: Review, Photos and Setlist appeared first on Consequence.
“We’re the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and we’re back!”
So screamed Karen O at the start of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ hometown comeback concert at Queens’ Forest Hills Stadium on Saturday, October 1st. There was unrestrained joy in her declaration, something the sold-out audience returned tenfold in screams of their own, both sides of the exchange clearly thrilled to have the New York band back on stage. It started the night’s energy at a triumphant 10, and it never lowered over the course of an 18-song setlist.
Last month, I dug into my most-played records of the last 15 years, noting that YYYs’ It’s Blitz! struck me because “you could feel every bit of joy being pumped into” the songs. I’m happy to say that nine years after their last LP, that fact still holds. No matter that their new record, Cool It Down, is filled with some heavier themes; Karen O, Nick Zinner, and Brian Chase enjoy the hell out of playing their music live, and it all translates into one of the best live shows I’ve seen all year.
The new tunes also play beautifully in a live setting. Opener “Spitting Off the Edge of the World” (which didn’t feature a Perfume Genius cameo, but the studded limo from the music video was parked by the merch booth) could grow into one of the best in the group’s repertoire. Sandwiching “Zero” (with the return of the inflatable eyeballs bouncing over the crowd), “Burning” and “Wolf” proved that the trio are more than capable of penning a bop to match their biggest hits from over a decade ago.
Cool It Down had the most presence on the setlist, followed closely by Fever to Tell (including encore closer and confetti accompaniment “Date with the Night”). While Is Is made an appearance with “Down Boy,” Mosquito was left off entirely. No one is going to argue anything on It’s Blitz! or Show Your Bones should have been bumped in favor of “Under the Earth” or “Sacrilege,” but it was interesting that the band chose to ignore their last pre-hiatus full-length during a homecoming.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Don’t get it twisted: that’s just an observation, not a quibble. With the spirit the band brought to the evening, the setlist could have been half as long and featured half as many favorites and it still would have been a must-see show. Chase was constantly leaving his seat to bash down on his kit, scream at the crowd, or clap along with his sticks. Zinner isn’t one to wear it on his face in the same way as his bandmates, but he was pacing his corner of the stage and in constant engagement with the sound.
There were a few moments when they had to restart a song as Karen O, in her own words, “got carried away,” but it was all due to a feverish exuberance that never dissipated. All smiles throughout, Karen O took multiple occasions to make dedications: “Black Tongue” was for a bunch of children she barely knew the names of; “Blacktop” went out to her costume designer, Christian Joy; and encore opener “Poor Song” was given to the married couple up front who had lyrics from the track engraved on their wedding rings.
Right before “Maps” came perhaps the most meaningful dedication of all. Karen O sent it out to a score of people: Zinner’s family, Andrew Wyatt, Chase’s family, her own family, and “most importantly to all you lovers in New York tonight!” It was really a thank you list of everyone who came together to make this particular show happen, and it began with the opening acts.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
“I cannot express to you how deeply joyful tonight is for me and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs,” Karen O said. “It might not feel like it, but for me, it’s like history in the making. We have the most amazing girl gang: We have Japanese Breakfast, we have The Linda Lindas. Deeply soulful, deeply brilliant Asian-American women. If the young Karen O, man, if I was like… Oh man, if I saw this show, I’d be fucking stoked! It would mean the world to me, and it means the world to me tonight, okay?”
The sentiment added a whole other level of power to the show. A Yeah Yeah Yeahs hometown concert in support of a spectacular new album after so many years away could have been enough; the fact that the whole night was dedicated to incredible female Asian-American artists performing to a sold out crowd, all delivering such magnificent sets, just made it that much more special.
There’s one more chance to catch this particular bill: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Japanese Breakfast, and The Linda Lindas have another concert set for October 6th at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl. (Get tickets for that gig here.) Even if you don’t get to see that precise powerhouse lineup, though, you need to keep your eyes out for future Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert announcements, or even appearances at festivals. With Cool It Down along for the ride, the trio is back and in top form — as if there were ever any doubt.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Limo, photo by Ben Kaye
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by Ben Kaye
Setlist:
Spitting Off the Edge of the World
Cheated Hearts
Black Tongue
Down Boy
Burning
Zero
Wolf
Fleez
Soft Shock
Lovebomb
Blacktop
Maps
Gold Lion
Y Control
Heads Will Roll
Encore
Poor Song
Honeybear
Date with the Night
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Complete Comeback with Triumphant New York City Show: Review, Photos and Setlist
Ben Kaye
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