The Wily Filipino

Yo La Tengo, The Fillmore, SF, 10/19 and 10/20, 2006.

There's really quite nothing like the sight of Ira Kaplan during, say, the 11th minute of "I Heard You Looking" -- body bent over his guitar, eyes clenched shut, neck snapping hard enough to cause an aneurysm, lifting the guitar over his head to elicit more feedback, but looking like he was paying obeisance to the speakers and the gods of rock in turn. The two Yo La Tengo concerts I attended last week (couldn't make the third because it was sold out) delivered their brand of rock-and-roll joy in spades: whammy-bar abuse on one hand, lullabies and heartbreak on the other.

The setlist was, of course, drawn from their latest album, I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass. (They couldn't say the title on NPR, so Ira thought he should repeat it for the audience, simply because it sounded good.) These remained in place, though in scrambled order, for the second night, although none of the old songs were recycled. (Note, then, to you lucky folks out there who will have them play more than once in your fair cities: go to both dates.)

From the latest album, in no order:

- Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind (this opened the first show)
- The Weakest Part (this opened the second show)
- Mr. Tough (this had the girls dancing)
- The Story of Yo La Tango (this was right before the encore)
- Beanbag Chair
- I Feel Like Going Home (Georgia on vocals and piano -- nothing better. But it's the quiet guitar solo at the end that's the icing on the cake)
- The Race Is On Again
- Sometimes I Don't Get You
- I Should Have Known Better
- Watch Out For Me Ronnie (Ira's a cappella shouting at the beginning is always a treat)
- Song for Mahila (I think)

The old songs, in no order, from both nights:

- Little Eyes
- Artificial Heart
- Stockholm Syndrome
- I Heard You Looking (which segued into TSOYLT on the second night)
- Four-Cornered Drone (I think -- this may have been the song played twice with the Chairs of Perception). Or was it Detouring America with Horns?
- The Crying of Lot G (not one of my favorites on And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, but damn, the live version was incredible)
- Big Day Coming (the fast version)
- Decora
- Deeper into Movies (perhaps my favorite YLT song ever; they played it just after I yelled it out)
- We're An American Band
- and there were more, but I can't remember. Did we get "Walking Away from You?" "Drug Test," perhaps?

And the covers, on both nights:

- Gram Parsons' "A Song for You"
- Sun Ra's "Somebody's in Love" (this ended the second show)
- Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby" (this ended the first show)
- The Beach Boys' "Little Honda" (before segueing into TSOYLT, this turned into something like a 10-minute descent into total metal-machine-music guitar squall)
- a 13th Floor Elevators song?
- Richard Hell's "The Kid with the Replaceable Head" (folks up on front -- about two rows ahead of me -- asked for something to commemorate the closing of CBGB's)
- Daniel Johnston's "Speeding Motorcycle" ("We're playing the People's Choice," Ira said)

Posted by the wily filipino at October 27, 2006 04:13 PM