The Perfect Loner's Lunch - Yo La Tengo at Other Music, 11/29/00
Dec 02 '00 (Updated Jan 17 '01)
The Bottom Line You can enjoy a Yo La Tengo show even if you're a friendless loser.
In-store performances are the musical equivalent of the matinee movie in the loner’s world – the opportunity to see desired entertainment at a reduced price while also minimizing the risk of seeing someone you know who will note your solo state and heap unwarranted condescension upon you for being so obviously a friendless loser. That’s the real problem with going out alone – not the solitude, but other people’s horrified reactions to it, since people seem to think you’re doing something vaguely obscene by appearing in public sans buddy system.
But frankly, in my experience, alone is often better, especially when your social skills with people not among your intimates could be likened to those of a caveman who’s recently been unfrozen after 4000 years. With my usual partner in solitude 700 miles away, I have learned to embrace my inner hermit to the fullest extent. Here in Boston I go to all sorts of things alone – the ballet (I’m so cultured), movies, restaurants, Oops I Accidentally Voted for Pat Buchanan support groups. I usually find it easier to head out alone than to try to cajole one of my newfound acquaintances into going to something that I’m pretty sure they’re not going to enjoy and have to worry about coming up with several hours of innocuous small talk.
But the one place I still hate to go it alone is at a club show, even though live music is one of the reasons I was so anxious to get back here. The entertainment loner’s usual weapons are useless at a show – it’s too dark to read a book or newspaper but not dark enough to prevent slack-jawed yokels from gaping at you, you can’t just slip in at the last minute because even if you do there’s still all that waiting time in between bands, and there’s virtually no way to maintain your cool jaded front with the constant danger that some drunken reveler might come up to you and implore you to “Smile!” That’s why in-store performances are such a blessing, and why Yo La Tengo’s appearance at the newly-opened Harvard Square (that’s Cambridge, MA for you New England-challenged) outpost of NY-based Other Music this past Wednesday was perfect for more reasons than just their usual musical brilliance.
The appearance was conveniently timed at the one o’clock lunch hour, making it easy for me to slip out of work for a little shot of indie rock without having to endure questions about where I was going – always an important thing when you’re an indie twenty-something in a sea of thirty-something NPR devotees (not that there’s anything wrong with that). When I got to the Square the line was snaked around the corner from the store, but rather than being populated by the large and rowdy groups you’d find waiting in line at a club, there was a good mix of couples and singles, and relatively little chit-chatting in line. It took about 15 minutes to get everybody inside (the store’s quite small, but the gracious Other Music staff had, to their own likely financial detriment, cleared away the CD racks to try to pack as many people in as possible), potentially a loner’s disaster, but I was prepared. I had a lollipop left over from Halloween in my pocket and sucked it absently until I was safely inside, effectively preventing others from trying to start a conversation with me and easily maintaining my “cool” exterior.
I was one of the last people to get in (having timed it like a pro to minimize pre-music exposure time) and thus didn’t have a very clear view of the platform the band was on. From what I could make out, the setup was very simple – Ira on guitar with no pedals, Dump (James McNew) on bass, and Georgia with a snare and cymbal that she played standing up, mainly with brushes. Apparently it was Georgia’s turn to wear the blue and white striped shirt (nearly every time out of the 7 – now 8 – times I’ve seen Yo La Tengo either Ira or Georgia has been wearing this shirt or its equivalent). As always, Ira did nearly all the talking, most of it self-deprecating and amusing. He even started out with a quip that warmed this introvert’s heart. They had played a real show at the Middle East the night before and Ira asked everyone who had been there to raise their hands. When a bunch of the Harvard kiddies complied, Ira gently mocked, “You can always tell a college town – the hands go right up. No offense, but I would never do that.” Me neither!
After a brief instrumental warm-up and a torchy rendition of the standard “My Baby Just Cares For Me,” the band took audience requests instead of playing from a setlist. The more vocal audience members were pretty restrained in their selections (of course I didn’t call out any). The songs were mainly what you’d expect if you’ve seen the band anytime in the last four years, and heavy on tracks from I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One, including “Center of Gravity” (Georgia’s voice was pretty badly off-key on this one),”Damage,” and the fan favorite “Stockholm Syndrome,” which poor Dump had to be browbeaten into singing by Ira (Dump insisted he “wasn’t prepared” but thankfully Ira knew better). But while you’d usually see some display of guitar heroics by Ira at a regular YLT show, the scaled down instrumentation prevented such outbursts, leading to some unexpectedly lovely renditions of usually guitar-heavy songs, including a gentle version of “From a Motel 6” from Painful that made my insides go all soft.
Yo La Tengo are known for having a wide spectrum of covers in their repertoire (in fact they play the annual pledge drive for New York’s WFMU and take viewer cover requests for pledge money), and this performance was no exception, including “Griselda,” “Red and Gray,” and, my personal favorite, Beat Happening’s” Cast a Shadow.” Basically, a band can do no wrong in my eyes when they cover this Calvin Johnson pop masterpiece (or the equally kewl “Indian Summer,” for that matter), but YLT’s version is definitely one of the best of the lot. Surprisingly, almost no one requested songs from their latest album And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, and Yo La Tengo played nary a one (though that might have been because they were avoiding playing things they had played the night before).
The whole performance lasted about 45 minutes, which, considering that this was just a freebie in-store in the middle of the day, was pretty darn generous, especially since they had played in town the night before and were playing another club show in Providence that night. They may have even stuck around for awhile afterwards to sign autographs, but I couldn’t tell you since I hightailed it out of there as soon as the last note had been played. Nothing would have ruined my perfect loner’s lunch more than having to interact with other people, modern day rock geniuses or not.
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Member: Christine
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 64 members
About Me:
Serving up chronic dissatisfaction since 1973.
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