Sleepytime at the Planetarium

Last night I went to Webster Hall to Yo La Tengo. Although I've seen them once before, when they played at Battery Park two summers ago, this is the first time I've seen them do a full set at a proper venue. And, unlike that show, where they treated the 4th of July crowd to an upbeat, pop-heavy set and a kick-ass cover of "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker", they (for better or worse) pulled no punches and made no compromises in last night's set. Though they did play some of their poppier material, the bulk of the show was comprised of slow, dirgy ballads and no fewer than three extended noise jams.
















Performing in front of a starry backdrop, they opened the show with the soporific "I Feel Like Going Home" - an excellent song, but both tonally and thematically, probably inappropriate as a way to kick off a concert. Erin compared the experience to when you go to the planetarium in elementary school and the combination of the teacher's monotone voice and the simulated night sky are pretty much guaranteed to put you to sleep no matter how strong your interest in astronomy. As the show went on they picked up the pace a bit but seemed to take some joy in generally keeping it on the soft side. They mostly played material from their new album, including "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind", the 10-minute (primarily instrumental) noise jam that kicks off the record. They didn't play "Black Flowers" (my favorite song on the album), but they did do an awesome rendition of "Mr. Tough" (sans horn section) that got the crowd pretty lively (or at least as lively as a crowd of Yo La Tengo fans can be). For the most part the band skipped over its more "classic" material, playing almost nothing from I Can Hear The Heart Beating as One or And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. They did play (a rather sloppy version of) "Sugarcube" but no "Autumn Sweater" or "Cherry Chapstick". Towards the end of the show they played an extended version "Big Day Coming", which I guess is like the meandering noise-rock equivalent of "Free Bird" for WFMU set (I remember them doing something similar when I saw them in Battery Park).

The echoey acoustics of Webster Hall were perfect for the band's reverb-heavy sound. It made all the squalls of noise that much noisier and made even the most subtle ambient sounds fill the room. I only stayed for the first encore, where they just started picking members of the audience at random and asking for requests, but it seemed like they could have kept going all night (and maybe they did). Though it certainly wasn't the most entertaining show they could have played, it was still nice to see these three middle-aged music geeks from Jersey have managed to make a career out of valuing good taste and eclecticism over being hip or trendy (or accessible), and still managing to pack clubs.