Photo by Andrew McNally
The day after Father’s Day seems like the most opportune time to go see a band like Yo La Tengo (who played on Father’s Day, too). If Springsteen isn’t in town, then YLT might be one of the best father-friendly bands out there. The band’s psychedelic-tinged alternative is primed for your dad’s car stereo, if they’re not already in rotation. But Yo La Tengo offers something for everyone, and they proved it on this night. The band is only months away from their 40th anniversary, and are touring in support of their absolutely excellent 17th album This Stupid World. But their show was anything but stupid – it was a career-spanning set that ranged from acoustic ballads to instrument-destroying noise, with the only constant factor being pure fun. They played two nights at the Paradise on June 18th and 19th, and we were lucky to catch the second show.
Yo La Tengo are time management experts – there was no opener! Instead, the band played two shortened, distinct sets. The first set was soft, the second loud. The soft set opened with two songs from their new album, possibly the two most recognizable ones – “This Stupid World” and “Sinatra Drive Breakdown.” The former was a very minimalist take, an incredibly soft opening to the show. “Sinatra” picked the pace up, but remained a low-key (medium-key?) affair. It was a tremendous performance of one of the sleeper picks for song of the year. Some other highlights of the first set were a performance of their 2003 song “Tiny Birds” that saw drummer Georgia Hubley take over vocals, and a version of their recent song “Apology Letter” that had some truly excellent guitar work from Ira Kaplan.
After a ~30 minute recess, the band came back for a louder portion. They opened with a droning version of their 2018 song “You Are Here” and used it to do a hard reset leap into a very funky rendition of 1997’s “Moby Octopad.” Some more excellent guitar work followed in “Stockholm Syndrome” before the band picked the pace up further. “Fallout,” “86-second Blowout” and “Shaker” were served as three super energetic tunes that the crowd was super into. The recent track “Brain Capers” and the 1995 classic “Tom Courtenay” finished up the original tunes. The second set closed with a raucous, tremendously noisy version of the Beach Boys classic “Little Honda” (one which the band put to tape many years ago). It featured a lengthy bridge of mind-melting improvised noise, a sound far removed from the slow jams that opened the night.
The band chose to do three covers for an encore – one by the Cure and two by Sun Ra. Kaplan joked that they were hanging out with the Cure (who played Mansfield on the 18th) and that the two bands agreed to cover songs by each other, while acknowledging that the Cure most likely did not hold that agreement (and according to setlist.fm…..no comment). But the band played an acoustic version of “Friday I’m In Love,” with Hubley on vocals. The first Sun Ra cover, “Unmask the Batman,” saw the band joined by Barrence Whitfield on vocals and Red Sox organist Josh Kantor on keys, the latter of whom was bribed to the stage by the band. It was a wild, bluesy performance, and it’s entirely possible that no one had more fun this night than Whitfield did. Finally, the band closed with “Dreaming,” another acoustic cover with Hubley singing.
The band started and ended with soft, tender performances and ramped up for extremely noisy stuff in the middle. They also played songs from eight different albums, not to mention the four covers. It was truly a night with something for everyone. If families were spending their Father’s Day jamming, then there was something for every family member to enjoy. Indeed, it was a diverse crowd, and one that was vibing with everything the band had to offer during their 2+ hour show. In case This Stupid World wasn’t enough to convince you, this show was – Yo La Tengo are still going as strong as ever.