Yeasayer
Yeasayer Live Review @ King's College London Student's Union [KCLSU] (London)
Live Review
For this one-off London gig (which was announced as their fifteenth in the city since they've played together, and the last one for a while), the audience patiently waited to hear Yeasayer to the sound of ambient rock Geordie troupe The Week That Was.
When the Brooklyn-based quartet took to the stage around 9.30pm to perform off their debut album "All Hours Cymbals", they instantly immersed the crowd in what would best be described as tribal psychedelia.
Second song on ("Tightrope"), every single one of them was conquered and bewitched by experimental atmospherics made out of sitar samples, sound sequencers, almost choir-like and often exotically indigenous harmonies, Luke Fasano's hammering drums (pertaining to a punk-rock Tony Allen, if this ever was conceivable) and Chris Keating's hypnotic vocals, which call comparisons to Frank Black's, David Byrne's and more arguably Justin Timberlake's ...
While, at times, through Anand Wilder's guitar, the band treaded into Pink Floyd's territory, Keating got into a trance to achieve the perfect falsetto.
Although, throughout the set, the crowd was trapped between the urge to dance and that to nod to this sonic innovation/experimentation, they didn't think twice about bouncing around on hearing the first few chords of "2080".
The band gave a very interactive show indeed, and got cosy with the audience, mocking the 'London Dragon' aka stage fog (which somehow bemused them), launching a booing competition and giving away freebies to the loudest members of the public!
One hour onwards, despite a vain attempt to end festivities with the classic "Sunrise", they had to give in an encore with "Wait for the Wintertime", due to the ear-damaging demand of the eager and unfulfilled crowd. A very understandable request, given the outstanding performance Yeasayer delivered, which did do their unique sound justice, in comparison to the somewhat overproduction of the record.
They promised to come back soon with new songs, so may all hours 'til then fly by!
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