Yo La Tengo live

For another thing, this 'really getting into it, man = emotion; concentrating on playing = technical, unemotional' vision -- I absolutely refuse this limiting, ridiculous stereotype. Some of the most calculated bullshit I've ever encountered at shows has been from the most active people on-stage, some of the freest, most evocative and emotional playing from the most calm and controlled performers. Roy Montgomery in particular, with two extended improvisatory pieces at Terrastock 2, showed that much, all while sitting down, but he had that crowd -- and a large one it was -- on as much of a trip as Ira did for yours. *And* Mr. Montgomery was engaging in a bit of audience banter too if that makes you happy.

I am not trying to set up an opposing set of rules to yours, Alex, but I am trying to demonstrate that your own vision is not automatically the mirror image of mine. Is this so hard to understand?

(But I still maintain, however, that your English is not crap. Es ist ganz besser als mein Deutsch...)

On the subject of YLT live- I remember Alec Empire interview in NME where he talked about seeing YLT live and how they were scared to go on because the stage was covered in water and so they might get fried! Onstage!

And alec then called them a bunch of assholes- he would love to be there himself, he'd relish that kind of situation- and he proceeded to tell the the kids to stop buying all of this indie garbage.

http://www.yolatengo.com/schedule.html

'Fun' reading above.

I suppose I'm only really familiar with "And the nothing...", "I Can Hear the Heart...", "Summer Sun", and "Painful", since those are the only ones I own. Oh, and their first album, which I've listened to 1/2 a time.

But I only recognized about 5 of the songs they played, total. I assume the rest were covers, obscure b-sides...who knows. When things couldn't get any worse, they ended with their "Nuclear War" cover, which lasted about 15 minutes and wasn't very impressive. Then, when they finished, a fall-over-drunk woman yelled out, "HAY!!1 Play it...aGEE-YEN!"

And they did. They played another 15 minute long version of Nuclear War, which was just as disappointing as the first. Then, they were done.

Plus, it looked like Ira and Georgia were in the middle of a messy divorce the whole show.

I've loved them both times I've seen them, and like all the LPs, though And Nothing... doesn't get much play.

But other than that, they've never been bad. And I told Ira Kaplan he was a Rock God at Maxwells one time, and he was doubled over laughing with (or at) me. I was pretty drunk at the time.

http://www.yolatengo.com/ylt/hanukkah2005diary.html

I was at the Sun Ra Arkestra show Wednesday, which was fine (esp the jammy version of "Little Honda") except I found the comedians only mildly amusing.

Their pieces with new-music horn players (Arkestra, Sabir Mateen, etc.) are the most disappointing collaborations since Dim Stars.

YLT were almost the Who circa 1968. Now they're the Who circa 1989. A huge and tragic waste.

"Tragic waste" is a ridiculous overstatement even if you don't like the horn stuff. Having the same approach to your shows in 1992 and 2005 would be ossification.

The double 7" is spectacular. Nuclear War 12, not so much.

I have to agree though, some of the best shows I've ever seen were Yo La Tengo shows. When they're on, they're on.

Yea, but there are other approaches they could have taken (and could still take?) without "ossification'.

xpost

(also, you literally couldn't see the band whether you were standing or not. I had no qualms about standing cuz I arrived after 9, and any everyone-sits protocol was out the window by then.)

In addition to the octopi-sex score, I like the funk stuff for "Shrimp Stories."

fun performance, but i'm with Morbs, really not a rock show at all. here's an interesting essay on Painlevé and a video example:

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/25/painleve.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8604649289441675492

also, i noticed Love Life of the Octopus was originally scored by Pierre Henry. pretty bold of them to redo that one.

i would've liked to have made my own decision, is all.

it was a fun show!

ngl ylt's hannukah shows are the event I'd most love to attend that I know I never will

wish they'd tape them and release them

otm on both counts, i would love to make it to one of these nights some day, but so doubtful

https://jessejarnow.com/2025/12/yo-la-tengo-hanukkah-2025-night-8-setlist/

My wife and I were at the 8th night closer . I didn’t love opener Florry ( Philly alt-country w/ dashes of Gram Parsons, Greatful Dead, Meat Puppets but with female singers) or the comedian, but Yo La Tengo was wonderful. They first did a number of songs with horns including a version of New Orleans’ Al Carnival Johnson song changed to “It’s Chanukah Time” and a number of their own songs. To pay tribute to late Michael Hurley they brought on fiddlers Peter Stampfel and Stephanie Coleman, then the Yo La trio got noisy by themselves. Susanna Hoffs joined them for encores and Ira’s 95 years old Mom joined them to close out with the fiddles on Griselda and My Little Corner of the World. Ira did a long heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped make it happen, read out fave Beatles songs of participants, and condemned the Trump admin .

Their set was great

insanely jealous of everyone who got to see scrawl!!

I saw Scrawl this summer at Union Pool, same day Oasis played their first NYC-area reunion show which led them to reminisce about opening for them: "They were such DICKS! But they were sooo good, you couldn't hate them....but still they were such DICKS!" Enormous fun, they also said they hadn't played NYC in 20 years, so I'm glad the next one was a lot sooner!

did they play 'your mother wants to know'?