Why? fans are a unique breed—once they love Why?, viagra order they’ll love Why? to the end. Thus, it wasn’t too surprising when virtually every attendee of the sold-out show rapped along to each idiosyncratic word that front man Yoni Wolf uttered during the night’s unforgettable performance at Brighton Music Hall—even down to the wop-wop-wops.
Why? is currently on tour promoting their newest album, Mumps, Etc., released in October 2012, as well as a new EP, Sod in the Seed, released in August of that year.
Dream Tiger, the solo project by Why?’s own Liz Wolf, opened the show with a luminous and haunting set that struck a delicate balance between the disparate vibes of Prince, St. Vincent, and Basshunter. Wolf, who is married to Why? guitarist-cum-drummer-cum-bassist Josiah Wolf and sister-in-law to Yoni, has a voice that’s as dark and smooth as 80%-cocoa chocolate (and as sweet). Deep, body-shaking bass lines give a hard and hypnotic edge to Dream Tiger’s silk vocals.
Astronautalis, or Charles Andrew Bothwell, exploded onto the stage next. “It’s about to get loud,” drawled Bothwell into the mic. Minneapolis-based, but Floridian to the bone, Astronautalis delivered a performance that sent the crowd into a pumped-up frenzy. A unique blend of hipster-hop and indie rock, Astronautalis played loud and proud. He started the set off with “Contrails,” a track off his 2011 album This Is Our Science for which he collaborated with Tegan and Sara’s own Tegan Quin. Bothwell moved through an energetic group of songs in which he rapped a million miles a minute (expelling line after line while rarely taking a breath) and sang in equal measure. Bothwell could be a spaghetti-western cowboy with his fitted denims and southern swagger, slinging rhymes like they were bullets shot at milk bottles. The performance even included an impressive freestyle rap, for which Bothwell requested topics from the audience (the chosen topics included Hey! Arnold, naming snowstorms, hunger, and Alanis Morissette).
When Why? sauntered onto the stage a few minutes after 9 p.m., choruses of “Yooooniiiii!” erupted for the band’s front man. Yoni appeared in gray jeans, white Converse sneakers, and a blue button-down that later opened to reveal a tie-dyed shirt promoting The Donkeys, a California rock outfit. Behind Wolf, two drummers, including Yoni’s brother Josiah, sat before identical drum sets outfitted with tambourines, xylophones, and everything in between to create Why?’s multi-layered percussion. Doug McDiarmid played bass and guitar at the back of the stage, Sarah Winters provided backing vocals and a Rhodes piano, and Liz Wolf switched between synthesizer, bass, and backing vocals. Band members multitasked, exchanging and playing multiple instruments throughout the set to create Why?’s complex tones, passing basses, guitars, and even maracas to one another.
In typical Yoni Wolf fashion, the rapper suppressed a smile, shrunk back, and then boldly kicked off the set with “Strawberries,” a hypnotic track off their new album Mumps, Etc. The Brighton Music Hall vibrated with the combined effects of Wolf’s half-sung, half-rapped lyrics, Why?’s layered percussion, and, of course, the voices of the audience, rapping and singing along.
Though Why? does not make strictly dance music, a groove pervaded Brighton throughout the set. Wolf jigged across the stage with swinging, Cossack-y moves and occasional dainty donkey kicks, sometimes stopping to sit atop an amp and rap intimately into the front row. The band played an evenly distributed combination of songs from their newest album, Mumps, Etc, as well as old favorites from albums like 2003’s Oaklandazulasylum, 2008’s Alopecia, and 2009’s Eskimo Snow. Fans met new tracks with equal enthusiasm as they did old favorites, warbling along to the chorus of the new album’s “Sod in the Seed” (“I’ll never shirk this first world curse/a steady hurt and a sturdy purse”) as loudly as they did to Why? classic “The Hollows.” Perhaps the peak moment of the performance came during the set’s final song, “By Torpedo Or Crohns,” a twinkling groove of shame and regret from Alopecia that culminates in the climactic, echoed refrain of “Brook & Waxing.” The crowd sang along: “I can decide, while I’m alive I’ll feel alive.”
Finishing their set promptly at ten, the audience roared and stamped for an encore. Why? graciously burst back onstage and played two songs: the new album’s “White English” and finally, the poignant “These Few Presidents” from Alopecia.
“Even though I haven’t seen you in years, yours is the funeral I’d fly to from anywhere,” the final line of “Presidents,” rang through the crowd and echoed, finally giving way to tremendous applause. As the band filed offstage, applause still raged on. Fans dispersed out of the club slowly, still repeating lyrics word for word, the residual groove still upon them. If any one thing defined the show, it was that groove—a groove of devotion, of love—of a favorite band.
Photo Credit: Marry Pivazian