JANUARY 5TH 2010 YEAH YEAH YEAH

THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Circle Pit
Thebarton Theatre
Tues Jan 6th 2010

After waking up this morning resigned to the fact I wouldn't get to see the YEAH YEAH YEAH's at Thebby Theatre tonight, a good fairy rang me with most welcome news. It was the indie equivalent of 'YES CINDERELLA YOU WILL GO TO THE BALL' and suddenly everything changed and calls were made, and plans were made, pulses raced.

There were a LOT of familiar faces in and around Thebby. Many a Karen O aspirants (is that even a word?) / inspired fashion statement was in attendance. Many home-made YYY's t-shirts, fashion accessories (even sunglasses). There was much buzzing around the merchandise desk, and many a summer wardrobe filled in a range of colours and styles.

After meeting up with my gang we decide to go in and check out the support band. Circle Pit are from Sydney. I was assuming they would be kind of hardcore as a 'circle pit' is defined by the Websters on-line dictionary as :
A mosh pit where everyone is running in circles, often in roughly the same direction and at roughly the same speed. Context: Most often used at concerts. Also quite violent as elbow are used as battering rams, etc.

Far from being punk or hardcore they were jittery, sloppy, dirge like sludge and had an air of having idolised too many wasted icons for too long. So this did not work for me at all. I thought it was a bit like going to see a band called AMPHETAMINE SLAMDANCE and them actually being a Hall & Oates cover band. Circle Pit, do not by the way, play music anything like Hall & Oates. The two main singers (a boy and a girl) are very anguished about, well something or other, and the guy singer is wearing 'gasp, shock, horror - A DRESS! Surely that gender stereotype has never been smashed before.

http://www.the-rudy.com/images/nvn_kurt-dress_b-up.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6c/Queen_i_want_to_break_free_video_still.jpg

The racket coming from the stage was not holding our interest and I think most of the young audience endured rather than enjoyed their overwrought set. I'd be prepared to give them another listen, but on the brief time I spent with them last night they seemed quite try hard. I read a review when I got home of their album Terminal Boredom

PINK REASON REVIEWS ALBUM ON TERMINAL BOREDOM

Circle Pit - Bruise Constellation

Definitely the "coolest" band in Australia in the traditional rock 'n roll sense. They look like Royal Trux but have a hold of their own sound that follows in the traditions of stuff like LA's X, Cheater Slicks, Jesus and Mary Chain, Jim Carrol Band etc... Dirty street romance vibes, with sugar on top. The kind of catchy songwriting that makes everything sound classic and familiar on the first listen. Go see them when they hit the states for sure! Everyone I talked to in Australia seem in agreement that they're one of the best live bands around.

Now without pulling that to pieces line by line, I am not comfortable with the words 'definitely' and 'coolest' being in the same sentence in this context. They sound nothing like Jesus & Mary Chain (whose every record I have bought since their first indie 7" about 300 years ago) and nothing like LA's X (who I was thrilled to finally see at Coachella last year). still, they were apparently hand picked by Karen O for this tour, so maybe she sees something in them that I haven't unearthed as yet. I do not wish to dismiss them hollus bolus, this is merely a straight from the heart reaction to the evenings events as they unfolded for me. Maybe if I'd seen the whole set from the start...but maybe not.

Anyway, the YEAH YEAH YEAHS hit the stage beneath a giant eyeball (although not as giant as the one they used at Coachella in April - Thebby has a much smaller stage) and started with an amazing Dull Life. People were losing their minds as soon as the lights went down and the atmosphere was electric. Karen O is completely mesmerising on stage. Charisma ten miles wide, quirky jerky dance moves, constant costume additions and subtractions all of which look like she has been frantically colouring in with her Hobbytex pens and working the Bedazzler to within an inch of it's glitter setting. Dull Life merges into Phenomenon and the pulse rate cranks up a couple of notches Karen O pulls a TISM style ski mask over her head and when the lights go out fro Heads Will Roll, the ski masks lights up with neon orange lights - a great effect. On stage Karen changes from a screaming banshee to a infant girl within moments. Heads merges into Pin and the entire place in jumping up and down like loons. She crawls and slithers across the floor for Shame & Fortune. After Man (from Fever To Tell) the thumping drum intro to Gold Lion sends everybody into spasms. Could it get any better? Well, seeing as you asked, Cheated Hearts is up next. And it's syncopated rhythm track chugs through the building like a robot discotech. Karen leaps off the stage into the pit at the front and gets various people to sing into the microphone for the 'woah woah' bits (mostly pretty badly - but at least for a moment about 12 different people were singing lead with YYYs which must have been mind blowing for them - if not us. LOL).

Much is written about Karen and quite rightly so. She is remarkable to watch. She is sexy without being sexual in any offensive way. Larger than life and captivating. However the boys in the band deserve kudos too. Brian Chase on drums is a stylish and rock solid bedrock. He thumps at those drums like a jack hammer having a good time in a club somewhere. Nick Zinner is dressed in black, tweaking and coaxing a mammoth sound from his guitars. With effect peddles and triggers augmenting his unquestionable talent as a guitarist, the sonic end of the band is fantastically well attended to, leaving Karen to do that Karen thing out front. The textured sound is further enhanced by a touring keyboard player filling out the bottom end.

Karen returns to the stage after slipping into a shorty kimono and a headdress made out of flouro hands to perform the atmospheric Skeletons. Throughout, the light show is astounding, and mix crisp, with the vocals only occasional swimming below the surface. Soft Shock and Honeybear are folowed by the anthemic Hero. During this song two additional giant eyeballs are launched over the crowd who squeal and scream and play with the worlds biggest beach balls. Then they are gone. I look at the time, they have been on for 50 minutes. They return for a two song encore. An acousticy version of MAPS which was very cool and then an absolutely mind blowing Date With The Night. There is a blitz of light, explosions of Y shaped glitter confetti and then it's all over.

The full set list was ;

Dull Life
Phenomenon
Heads Will Roll
Pin
Shame and Fortune
Man
Gold Lion
Cheated Hearts
Skeletons
Soft Shock
Honeybear
Zero

Maps (acoustic)
Date with the Night

Everybody was buzzing after the show, talking about their favourite bits and certain words like 'amazing' and 'incredible' just kept coming up over and over again. It was a hell of a first gig for the year and set the bar very high indeed. Having said that, tickets were $80 and they only played for an hour, which does seem a little bit skimpy to me. That would be a good length set at a Festival. Given they have three albums of material and b-sides (at Coachella they covered Human Fly by the Cramps as a tribute to Lux Interior), 60 minutes seemed a little short to me. Last year I saw Leonard Cohen, he was 75 years old at the time he played for just under THREE HOURS. Anyway that is a VERY little quibble to have at such an amazing show.

After the show we were lucky enough to catch up with Brian and Nick, who were lovely and signed things and did photos and gave people hugs. They whisked Karen out with just a wave and smile. Quite a night.