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Live Review
by SashaS
8-5-2003
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| Yo La Tengo: sonic twister elevation |
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Live: Yo La Tengo
Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Wednesday, May 7, 2003
Yo La Tengo’s fairground of sound
It must have been the fate’s cruelly played hand to keep me from experiencing this band live because I walk out knowing what my (new) favourite band is! Yo La Tengo is the name and their music is without frontiers, idiosyncratically scoped to instantly open new doors to perception of a vastly different kind of parallel vistas.
Yo La Tengo are touring the new album, ‘Summer Sun’, that is so stuffed with genuine holism it should carry a health warning. The trio busy themselves around a décor-less stage clattered with assorted instruments – swapping instruments and vocals with regularity other musos allegedly do groupies – to flesh out sonic pictures that simply liberate one’s spirit to the extent of… the drugs that actually work.
Pop tunes rub ends with psychedelic snatches of once-a-future set against the washes of atmo- and experimenter-tracks, flying off here and there, laterally, diagonally, every which way but monotonous! Constantly tracing boulevards that vibrate with echoes of rock, pop, jazz, noises, jams, feed-backs… The fairground of sound! The way these tones meld into songs overwhelmingly recall the Mothers Of Invention, the late Frank Zappa led outfit.
Inasmuch as there are no rules, there is no set values observed but total freedom of creativity to be spiritually enriching to the point of multiply satisfactions. ‘Tiny Birds’ and ‘Let’s Be Still’ take you on prolonged trips over mental canyons with surfacing as an emotional wreck as the only outcome. There is little talk from the stage while music is dispensed with power to heal everyday downers.
The excellent show was further boosted by the first support, M. Ward, an incredible songwriter in the fashion of Tom Waits, Nick Cave and, even, Leonard Cohen. The Portland, Oregon, based songwriter’s third album, ‘Transfiguration Of Vincent’, is the album that can hit emotionally the most since Johnny Cash’s ‘American IV: The Man Comes Around’. M. Ward cut his musical teeth in a trio Rodrigez but has certainly come onto his own since the debut ‘Duets For Guitars #2’, issued before this century’s dawn.
M. Ward is an enigma worth your getting in touch with innermost feelings, fiascos, issues… His slot only added to an overwhelming urge to – greet the night at the top of me voice! Surreal, insane, freakish ace of an Eve… Quality, shrinks should be psycho-analysing!
SashaS
7-4-2003
Yo La Tengo’s album ‘Summer Sun’ is available now on Matador
M. Ward’s album ‘Transfiguration Of Vincent’ has been released 28 April 2003 by Matador
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