Yoko Ono released 'Take Me to the Land of Hell' (stream it) ++ a second set of pics from her Bowery Ballroom show

photos by P Squared Photography

Yoko Ono w/ Earl Slick @ Bowery Ballroom – 9/15/2013

There were a few moments Sunday night at the Bowery Ballroom that the seven-piece wailing pastiche-funk 2013 incarnation of the Plastic Ono Band threatened to overpower Yoko Ono. But not many. Whenever the double guitars and twin keyboards and programmed and live drums and throbbing upper-register bass-lines and trumpet seemed about ready to swallow the center, suddenly, there was Yoko. Ululating, shrieking, honking, squeaking, whoaing, yelping, laughing, sloganeering, singing, and cutting through it all.

Marking the release of the new guest-studded Take Me To The Land of Hell, Ono — playing her only show of 2013 — was at once both commanding and sweet, beautifully cosmic and unflinchingly void-staring. During her hour-long (and thankfully not guest-studded) set, she lobbed far-out hippie love-bombs one tune (“It’s just money! You don’t have to work anymore!”) and unfurled harrowing half-monologues the next. “You stoned me, you burned me, you drowned me,” she sang on “Rising,” her voice making its tender limitations known. And when she wasn’t vocalizing, speaking, giggling, or dancing slyly, there was a tiny bit of time leftover to note that, in fact, there was an 80-year old woman up on stage doing all of it. – [SPIN]

We’ve already posted one set of pitcures from Yoko Ono and the current incarnation of The Plastic Ono Band‘s show at Bowery Ballroom this past Sunday (9/15). But with a legend like Ono, one is never enough so here’s a second set of shots. The Plastic Ono Band included her son Sean, as well as Cibo Matto’s Yuka Honda, and the set featured an appearance by onetime Bowie guitarist Earl Slick.

The show doubled as a release party for Ono’s new album, Take Me to the Land of Hell, which hit stores today. You can stream it via Spotify or Rdio. More pictures from Bowery Ballroom below…

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