Concert Review: Yeah Yeah Yeahs & TVOTR on City Hall Plaza

TVOTR played a bunch of songs Bostonist was not familiar with, probably because they are on the band's forthcoming Return to Cookie Mountain album that drops in the US the day after 9-11. At first, we were a bit taken back by the band's sound, which was stripped down and almost mean, shorn of the usual atmospheric and quirky electronic backdrops that envelope their recordings. But, aside from the open, boomy acoustics of the plaza, we settled in and really enjoyed the leaner, post-punk sound of the band live.

TVOTR also gave an earful the U.S. Marine Corps, one of the event's co-sponsors. At every opportunity (like before every song), the band expressed, uh, displeasure with the Marines' presence (which included a recruiting table). "Do NOT join the Marines and Bush's evil war machine." "Here's another song about not joining the Marines." The Boston Phoenix didn't appreciate the band's message, which they somehow equated with an attack on the individual Marines who are doing the fighting and dying in Iraq (as opposed to a direct attack on the Bush administration, which would not have irritated "Boston’s Alternative"). For more of TVOTR's thoughts on the war in Iraq, go here for "Dry Drunk Emperor," which contains the lyric:

Baby boy dieing under hot desert sun, watch your colors run
Did you believe the lie they told you, that Christ would lead the way
and in a matter of days, hand us victory?

The Yeah Yeah Yeah's kicked off their raucous set with the fantastic "Gold Lion" and "Cheated Heart" off their latest album Show Your Bones. As you can see from the photos, Karen O wore a funky red, gold and purple spandex number. She also came out with a red and black scarf or wrap of some sort that she sometimes used to cover her head, whipping it around like a flag twirler before tossing it off-stage to continue bounding about unencumbered. And bound she did. Karen O's ebullient dancing, leaping, and bouncing were infectious and helped to amp up those in the crowd relatively close to the stage (most of whom didn't really need the help).

The YYYs ended the set with a spirited rendition of "Maps" from 2003's Fever To Tell. Karen O dedicated the number, which she described as the band's one true love song, to Nick "Massachusetts native" Zinner's parents and sister, who were in the crowd. Their sole encore was the beloved "Y Control," also from Fever.

Bostonist had a great time and found ourselves thinking, as we joined the Urban Outfitted lemmings swarming out of Government Center, that the show had exceeded our expectations. Sure the sound could have been better. But we were pleasantly surprised that Karen O's intense energy and powerful stage presence didn't evaporate in the heated air of the wide-open plaza. Oh, and it would have been hard (very) for TVOTR to disappoint us.

[flush right margin this (Christine's) photo abutting the "Post contributed by . . ." text. or somewhere that makes sense.]

Post contributed by Matt Durutti. More Matt's photos of the show may be seen here (YYYs) and here (TVOTR). Bostonist's C. Fernsebner, who originated the phrase "Urban Outfitted" to describe the youngsters huddled together on City Hall Plaza for the YYYs, took more photos, which may be seen here.