Yeasayer silence the Naysayers
Mohammad Mirza finds a fat slice of Brooklyn in Shepherds Bush
After their successful release of Fragrant World, Yeasayer decided to grace the Shepherd’s Bush Empire with a set list heavy on songs from their latest album. In the air was a whiff of dope.
The crowd roared as the band took to their space station, which was designed to look like a stage. Kicking off with the well layered ‘Blue Paper’, it took them only a couple of minutes before they had turned the night into a dance party.
The enthusiastic performance given by Chris Keating, Anand Wilder’s bold vocals and Ira Wolf Tuton’s slippery bass groans, and not to mention the lively drums brought in by Cale Parks really came together well. They let each other’s music ease in and it never felt as if they were stretching it. Yeasayer really sounded like four guys playing music.
Too cool for cliché, they distorted the first few notes of their psychedelicious songs just to leave the crowd guessing. ‘2080’ from their first album, All Hour Cymbals made the cut with its harmonised chorus and their acclaimed single ‘Longevity’ was a tasty addition with Keating’s breathy squeals and chirps adding another layer of life to the song.
Exhilarating both visually and sonically
The ending of ‘Longevity’ transitioned into an improvised intro to ‘O.N.E.’ which in my opinion was one of the most entertaining tracks, recreated with bursting tempo and manifesting a pretty bold and beautiful performance from Wilder who accentuated the lyrics with his strong vocals. I am such a fan.
You could nod your head along to ‘Madder Red’s very catchy yet psychedelic tune which morphed into ‘Demon Road’ after which ‘Wait for Summer’ flew over and around the crowd lifted by the rich warm synths and exotic guitars. ‘Ambling Amp’ was a delightfully bright and uplifting song well placed as the last of the main set.
A four song encore ensued, starting off with the compelling ‘Fingers Never Bleed’ and finishing off with the surprising addition ‘Folk Hero Shtick’.
It is not very easy to translate such delicate musical arrangements to stage but Yeasayer performed admirably. One never felt that the pre-recorded tracks and drum loops were overplayed and most of what you heard was refreshingly alive and organic. The quartet was exhilarating both visually and sonically. They absolutely killed it.
