From reprised punk to psychodelic prog rock and beyond, Yeasayer’s first show on their Australian tour had something for everyone – if you dig some form of experimental guitar rock that is.
Front runners Stature:Statue offered a short sharp set of what can only be described as being as close to traditional punk as heard in a long time. The shouty vocals were ear-piercingly arduous, there was little differentiation in the composition of each of their tracks and although there were some experimental moments, none were particularly inspired. This does not mean it wasn’t entertaining. This is what punk is. The lead singer / guitarist was loud, energetic and dexterous, the bass player was a freakin’ wild man moving his long limbs all over stage left like a stick insect on speed. Their last track was their best, however if I hadn’t have seen them with my own eyes, I would have sworn it was Operator Please reprising Leave it Alone on some maniacal level.
In contrast, new purveyors of psychedelic prog rock, Perth’s Tame Impala, left no illusions as to why they have been selected for a number of coveted national tour support slots recently. Their take on psychodelia is at once refreshing in its newness and comforting in its homage to all those iconic acts from the wah pedal’s salad days.
Comprised of several movements, each of their tracks are permeated with extended fuzzed out guitar work and harmonised vocals – it’s as though The Black Keys meshed with The Beatles, The Kinks and The Who to form my (and possibly your) new favourite band for this summer. This melding of old and new is no better evidenced than by current single Desire Be Desire Go which stopped punters mid sentence and pulled them closer to the stage. Their take on Blue Boy’s Remember Me (heavily sampling Marlena Shaw’s Woman of the Ghetto), was a suprise inclusion; only registering as this song when the geng geng gageng’s started. After extended guitar solos threatened to pull the momentum of the set down, Half Full Glass of Wine turned this around giving Jay Watson room to show us just how intricate and challenging his drumming is – flourishes of fills and rapping on the rims adding further complexity and dimension to Kevin Parker’s vocals and thick yummy fuzzed wah goodness.
Haling from Brooklyn NY, Yeasayer caught the ears of the right industry pundits at last year’s SxSW and haven’t stopped touring since. They have taken their unique kaleidoscope of middle-eastern, choral and electronic psych rock sounds to this year’s Lollapalooza, Reading and Roskilde festivals, toured with MGMT and supported Beck on his recent European tour. Now they are in Australia for a trio of shows in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney before a couple of stops in NZ and an extensive homeland tour that should see them back in New York for Christmas.
Dimming the blue lights to shades of amber, underwater echoes & shattered siren calls infused thru a murky gloom on stage indicated Yeasayer were about to appear. The smallish crowd made up for any lack of patronage with their audible excitement at hearing this industry lauded group live for the first time.
Upon the three male voices melting into each other with passion, urgency and beauty, it was understood why they have been described as choral, exotic, apocalyptic… but in a good way. The persistent drums create an atmosphere of the tribal while the guitar invokes visions of middle-eastern celebrations that encourage active participation in the song making. The vocals range from Scissor Sister -esk falsetto to sounding so much like David Byrne that parallels to Talking Heads cannot be ignored. Samples and the strains of keys form ambient soundscapes that chase each other from speaker stack to speaker stack, seemingly above our heads. It’s almost magical.
There was such an array of sounds from varied genres there was fear that it may disintegrate into a mess of noise, but it didn’t. It works. The crowd was jubilant as each new song added another element to their already extensive, exotic, eclectic sounds. In particular, single 2080 rallied all to look positively at the future, regardless of what it brings. For Yeasayer, their future couldn’t be anything but.
