I have been a fan of Yo La Tengo before I actually heard their music when Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley used to DJ at Maxwell’s during Feelies shows back in the mid-eighties. At the time and until they broke up, The Feelies were my favorite live band. As they, spun their collection of waxed goodies, material I am sure they studied day in-day out, I was given musical history lessons. They too, learned a lot as they sat behind the mixing boards observing one of the first generation of bands that would perpetuate the sound of the Velvets and Television. Eventually Ira and Georgia stopped DJing to concentrate on their own band. I had always considered Yo La Tengo as little siblings of the Feelies because of the connection, just as I had considered Luna a second cousin since Stanley Demeski was their first drummer. When James McNew came on board he was considered by most including Ira and Georgia as temporary replacement. Years later while watching him with the band I finally realized that his job became full-time when he first joined. Over the years, Yo La Tengo has blossomed magnificently and have superseded what many bands seek to do. While maintaining a relatively low profile, they have successfully established a large fan-base throughout the world, released numerous fantastic albums one after another and are now regarded as indie rock gods and goddess.

Over the course of twenty plus years and in the couple different cities where I have seen YLT play live, I find it strange that I personally have never seen them in a seated theater venue. To me most concerts should not be seen sitting down. Live music needs an interaction between the fans to become truly dynamic and that doesn’t always happen when the audience is seated or can only move around so much between the seats if they stand. There have been a few exceptions for me over the years, which after I had declared some of the best shows I have seen, such as Tom Waits, John Cale and Leonard Cohen. Although I was not hesitant to attend the night’s show becuase of this fact, I went in with this prenotion. The Landmark Loew’s Theater built in 1929 isn’t exactly the greatest home for concerts, due to the fact it was built to amplify movies and not live music. Located in downtown Jersey City, this beautiful theater is engrossed with ornate details from floor to ceiling and omits a slight musty odor but reeks with history. Owning to this fact the entire night’s performance was layered with a little bit of distorted sound due to the poor amplification. At times it seemed liked it was not loud enough although I was only sitting in the sixth row. Most of the audience remain seated throughout the entire performance, but their still was head bobbing and swaying. I didn’t actually mind sitting down throughout the night and by evening’s end was glad I did.

We missed the openers Why? but I check them out on their MySpace site and they seemed pretty good; sort of like They Might Be Giants. All I have to ask is, Hey guys could you have found a name for your band that is more elusive? We did catch the act in between the two bands, Rolling Thunder, the premier roller blading duo of New Jersey. They have a very short act that is amazing, a little short, but extraordinary and exceptionally stupid and that’s the joke!

Ira, Georgia and James McNew walked out and did some strange tunings that could have been made by jazz improv masters performing at Lincoln Center as they warm up before the performance. Imagine Miles Davis, Sun Ra along with Jimi Hendirx for 53 seconds of nothingness, but they quickly turned that bottle of sound into one of their more accessible, pop friendly songs “Sugarcube”. Throughout the night they played nine songs from their latest album I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass as well a nice mixture of older songs and a couple covers. As usual the band rotated positions on stage throughout the evening, with Ira on left side of the stage and James on the right for the first couple songs. Part of YLT’s show is they like to switch positions and instruments throughout a show, the multiple role play became more apparent on the larger stage as if it was choreographed by crazed magicians and they were the puppets.

For their second song they set down an infectious groove with one of the new songs “Pass the Hatchet I Think I’m Goodkind”. Continuing with the trance they built, they blended into “Flying Lesson” from Electr-O-Pura, a hypnotic song, illustrating lucid dreaming. A couple other high and low shifts as they moved forward into the bouncy “Mr. Tough”, their latest pop friendly tune which encourages you to get off your feet and make a scene on the dance floor or just pick them up if you happen to be sitting down like we were. The song mentions Toddaphonic Time which is Todd Abramson’s show on WFMU who is also the one of the owners of Maxwell’s and the promoter of the evening’s show. The name alone “Mr. Tough”, reminds me of the children book series Mr. Men by Roger Hargreaves that came out in the seventies. They abruptly finish with a false ending which tricked most of the audience into clapping and quickly ended with a couple more beats.

One of the evening’s high-points, as usual is when James sang “Stockholm Syndrome” which has become one of the standout tracks over the years since it came out on their landmark album “I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One”. They slammed us into a foot stomping, and believe it or not, a little speedier version of “Watch Out For Me Ronnie” that pays respect to Sixties garage rock such as the Sonics. My new favorite song off the new album is the monumental, escalating chamber of sound which tells “The Story Of Yo La Tango” (note the misspelling), and may very well be the definitive song of their career. Both Ira and James manipulate their instruments like they are tiny toys as Georgia bangs along using primitive tools. Just as things seem to fall out of place they grab a hold of everything and dispense a new organized chemistry of sound.

Yo La Tengo is a band that loves to jam but no one would ever call a jam band, because they’re just too damn smart. They also have a great sense of humor and are never reluctant to bring it out. For encores they played two songs from New Wave Hot Dogs which always brings back fond memories, “Did I Tell You” and “Lewis”. They also careened into a roaring version of the Stones “Rocks Off”. Ira thanked everyone for coming out to their only New York appearance, I hope until December when they come back to Hoboken for Hanukkah concerts at Maxwell’s.

Setlist
01 Sugarcube, 02 Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind, 03 Flying Lesson, 04 The Weakest Part, 05 Sometimes I Don’t Get You, 06 Winter A-Go-Go, 07 Mr Tough, 08 Beanbag Chair, 09 I Feel Like Going Home, 10 Stockholm Syndrome, 11 I Should Have Known Better, 12 Watch Out For Me Ronnie, 13 Tom Courtenay, 14 The Story of Yo La Tango, 15 I Heard You Looking, Encore One: 16 Oklahoma USA (by The Kinks), 17 Lewis, 18 Rocks Off (by The Rolling Stones) Encore Two: 19 Cast A Shadow (by Beat Happening), 20 Did I Tell You.