An Evening With Yo La Tengo

Concert review

Yo La Tengo playing Turner Hall in Milwaukee, WI. Photo: Daniel Ojeda

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1680 days.

That’s how long it’d been since I’d last been to a show. A music show, anyway. It’s a long streak, and I’d like to say I broke it up in the middle by seeing a discussion by the cast of Schitt’s Creek, but they didn't sing, so it doesn’t count.

At any rate, the last one I’d been to was Pearl Jam at Wrigley field. This time? An Evening with Yo La Tengo. That sort of title comes with certain connotations, and when I first grabbed my tickets, I wasn’t sure what I was in for. Was this going to be an all-acoustic set?

You know how every pharmaceutical ad somehow ends at the same light jazz concert? That’s what I was starting to envision. Or was this a bit of wry humor on their part? Maybe both?

If anything, it was the latter. As I’ve said before, there are two Yo La Tengos; a very quiet one and a rowdier one. Both took the stage in Milwaukee this past Saturday. There was an initial (more or less) quiet set, followed by a 15-20 minute intermission, a longer, louder second set, and then a brief encore.

The band is touring in support of the latest release, This Stupid World, and a good part of the first set was spent playing tracks from it, starting with the title track followed by “Sinatra Drive Breakdown” before breaking into “She May She Might” from 2018’s There’s A Riot Going On.

They kept things off balance (and on-brand) by bursting into a cover of The Urinal’s “Ack Ack Ack Ack” right in the middle of the song.

The other two covers came during the encore; Velvet Underground’s “I Heard Her Call My Name” opened the encore, while the Flamin’ Groovies’ “You Tore Me Down” (which the band covered on 1990’s Fakebook) closed the show.

On the way there, we took a tour through a lot of the band’s discography. They might be touring in support of This Stupid World, but the band touched on no less than 9(?) of their records over the two-and-a-half-hour set.

Matt Wild @ByMattWild

Yo La Tengo show = GOOD

This easily could’ve been a paint-by-numbers run through some of their biggest songs. Instead, we were treated to a mix of old and new. Hits (all relative, of course) and deep tracks alike. Searing feedback loud enough to trigger the noise alert on my wife’s iWatch and Georgia Hubley’s gentle, lilting vocals. The wonderful harmony that comes with the three of them singing together. And, of course, Kaplan writhing like an inflatable man at a used car lot while banging out incandescent riffs.

There was no opening act. Playing Chicago the night before, members of Wilco had joined them onstage, creating a sort of impromptu alt/indie supergroup. For this show, the only additional musicians were…us as Kaplan handed his guitar out into the crowd while the band played “Ohm.” It sounded better than you might think and was he got it right back a few moments later. Badgers are a polite lot.

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It had been over four years since I’d been to a show, and according to Kaplan, ten years since they’d been to MKE (“an oversight!”).

For all of us in the standing-room-only crowd, our “evening with Yo La Tengo” will be one we won’t soon forget.

Setlist:

Have you seen the band on this tour? Maybe on a previous one? Got a favorite record or song of theirs? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Thanks for being here,

Kevin—

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