2008 Woodie Awards
Yeah Yeah Yeahs live
I tend to associate bands and genres with the people who introduce me to them. For that reason, I can't listen to O.A.R. (unrequited high school love) or any ska (ex-best friend)…
By: Emily Smith, Features Editor
Issue date: 4/28/06 Section: The Arts
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I tend to associate bands and genres with the people who introduce me to them. For that reason, I can't listen to O.A.R. (unrequited high school love) or any ska (ex-best friend). The boy who got me into the Yeah Yeah Yeahs treated me terribly and broke my heart. I can't help but think of him when I hear “Man” from their 2003 release Fever to Tell, but I never gave it up—the album is just too freaking good.
An exciting mystery surrounds lead singer Karen O, because no one understands how she manages to be so incredible. I like to describe Fever to Tell as forty minutes of Karen O's orgasms. She screams, screeches, and moans to a background of intense, fast-paced guitar and thrashy, crashy drums.
The band is currently touring in support of their March release Show Your Bones. In a recent Pitchfork interview, Karen O said that she, “was feeling a little bit more aversion to the more rockish, noisy, kinda histrionic vocals,” and that sentiment is obvious in the album's more melodic, less crazy, but still intense songs. I love the album, even though it lacks a certain amount of Karen O's je ne sais quoi.
I've told many of my friends that I would willingly eat my firstborn child in order to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, so I was thrilled to simply pay $25 for a ticket instead. I had heard that they were incredible live, so I was excited to witness Karen O's antics for myself last Sunday at First Avenue in Minneapolis.
My companion and I arrived early enough to be just a few feet from the stage, packed in among a surprisingly diverse crowd (hipsters and indie kids and punks—oh my!) I was disappointed in the opening band, Blood on the Wall. They seemed promising because they had a female bassist/vocalist. That combination fascinates me, but in Blood on the Wall's case, it was improperly executed. Though their music was okay, her vocals, along with the tantrum-like vocals of the male guitarist, rendered their performance nearly unbearable. And call me shallow, but I think that rock stars should look the part. Blood on the Wall was an unattractive band. Unacceptable.
An exciting mystery surrounds lead singer Karen O, because no one understands how she manages to be so incredible. I like to describe Fever to Tell as forty minutes of Karen O's orgasms. She screams, screeches, and moans to a background of intense, fast-paced guitar and thrashy, crashy drums.
The band is currently touring in support of their March release Show Your Bones. In a recent Pitchfork interview, Karen O said that she, “was feeling a little bit more aversion to the more rockish, noisy, kinda histrionic vocals,” and that sentiment is obvious in the album's more melodic, less crazy, but still intense songs. I love the album, even though it lacks a certain amount of Karen O's je ne sais quoi.
I've told many of my friends that I would willingly eat my firstborn child in order to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, so I was thrilled to simply pay $25 for a ticket instead. I had heard that they were incredible live, so I was excited to witness Karen O's antics for myself last Sunday at First Avenue in Minneapolis.
My companion and I arrived early enough to be just a few feet from the stage, packed in among a surprisingly diverse crowd (hipsters and indie kids and punks—oh my!) I was disappointed in the opening band, Blood on the Wall. They seemed promising because they had a female bassist/vocalist. That combination fascinates me, but in Blood on the Wall's case, it was improperly executed. Though their music was okay, her vocals, along with the tantrum-like vocals of the male guitarist, rendered their performance nearly unbearable. And call me shallow, but I think that rock stars should look the part. Blood on the Wall was an unattractive band. Unacceptable.
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