Yo La Tengo played two collaborative sets at Big Ears fest (videos), playing Loew’s Jersey Theatre this weekend
Big Ears Festival went down this past weekend in Knoxville, TN with a great lineup that included a handful of great acts, including a collaboration between Yo La Tengo and Lambchop on day two. From Billboard‘s review:
Longtime friends and occasional musical partners, the two groups performed as one in an after-midnight set so crowd-pleasing it should have been mandatory listening for any festival-goer who felt burned by YLT’s long improvised show the previous night. (Even cabbies and waiters who weren’t attending concerts had heard enough grousing to know lots of people hated that freeform set, however in keeping it was with the themes of Big Ears.) Here, fans not only got to hear songs they loved, they got to experience them in charmingly twisted new ways — as when Lambchop frontman Kurt Wagner, a gimme cap hiding his face, sang YLT’s “Autumn Sweater” through a reverby audio-effects box.
Watch a video of that “Autumn Sweater” performance:
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They also played day two with yet another interesting lineup…
Those who’ve caught Yo La Tengo’s tour for the recent all covers album Stuff Like That There likely expected the band to bring that same melodic living-room-hangout vibe to Knoxville. Instead, fans received, as YLT’s Ira Kaplan put it, “something we’ve never done before.” YLT put on a 90-minute improvisational session in which the band’s three members were joined by [The National’s Bryce] Dessner, [Sun Ra] Arkestra’s Danny Ray Thompson, harpist Mary Lattimore and Chris Abrahams on organ.
For an uninterrupted half-hour or so, the seven musicians inhabited a spacey zone, very different from the Arkestra’s interplanetary realm. With four stringed instruments plinking and scraping beneath harp, electronics, flute and organ, the room was conducive to eyes-closed meditation.
Here’s a video of that:
YLT have more tour dates coming up, including the Big Star tribute in LA later this month and Jersey City on Saturday, April 9 at Loew’s Jersey Theatre. Tickets for NJ are still available.
YLT are also on the upcoming 2016 Pickathon lineup, which was recently expanded to include performances by Wolf Parade, Mac DeMarco, King Sunny Ade, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, and more. Pickathon 2016 happens August 5 – 7 in Happy Valley, Oregon. Check out the full lineup.
YLT’s Ira Kaplan plays the second of two Ivan Julian benefit shows at City Winery.
