The support act, David Kilgour is, apparently, quite an important musician in New Zealand. His band The Clean were quite renowned in the late 80s as part of the seminal Flying Nun roster. The last half of what I saw was fantastic – great melodic power pop with ample amounts of feedback. I recently acquired his new solo album and, from what I’ve heard, I love it. I think I’ll have to dig a bit deeper into David Kilgour’s back catalogue.



Yo La Tengo’s performance was a welcomed return after about three years. I haven’t been a fan for that long so a lot of the set was new to me. I knew stuff off their latest album, I’m Not Afraid Of You And I Will Kick Your Ass, which is definitely one of the best album titles of last year. Yo La Tengo played the awesome ‘Pass The Hatchet’ as ‘I Think I’m GoodKind’ was given an extra kick with James McNews driving bass line.



I have to make special mention about the crowd as Yo La Tengo fans aren’t really rock at all. They’re very studious looking, quite serious even. Towards the end ,people were leaving and I was quite surprised; I really didn’t understand why. So I put this question forward – ego driven rock stars or rock artistry? While I go with the latter, some people might have thought that long guitar solos and massive amounts of feedback amounted to nothing. But I really don’t think that is any reason to leave – there’s no way I would throw my hard earned cash out the window like that unless in dire circumstances. If unless, say, the band or artists were being complete idiots. Yo La Tengo conversed with the audience and thanked them a lot as they played for two hours. Now that’s dedication and respect for the fans in anybody’s books!



Yo La Tengo finished off the set with a couple of apt covers – one Bob Dylan song and another one by David Kilgour’s other band Snapper; a bit different and more softer to the other stuff I heard David play earlier on.



There’s something really special about three-piece bands because they seem to evoke so much more power and resonance as opposed to a four or five-piece band. I don’t know where the energy comes from but for a couple of songs Yo La Tengo absolutely shredded the audience with a storm of feedback and distortion. Ira Kaplan is one underrated guitarist and I think he’s comparable with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth fame. The way he uses his axe to destroy the listener is nothing less than astounding.