Yo La Tengood!

I've been a little overwhelmed lately, so I wont wax in depth about this, but I saw indie rock emissaries Yo La Tengo Friday night at the Ivar Theatre in Hollywood. It was a wonderful show. This was part of their "Freewheeling Yo La Tengo Tour" which basically means they had a stripped down, acoustic set-up, and they developed their setlist extemporaneously via discussion from the audience. Too bad my LA peers, myself included, didn't seem ready to stimulate dynamic discussion. The music on the other hand, was incredible. The loose format made the show hearken back to what it might have been like to see them in their earlier days. Ira, the guitarist and singer, said this format was kind of like how their practices are. Except with more songs. They even switched instruments for their second to last song afer a dude asked them to. Georgia, singer and drummer and wife of Ira (and warm fuzzy center of the band in this stolid, playful sense) wasn't too into playing guitar. We applauded the effort all the same.

Speaking of Yo La Tengo from their earlier days, here's a video of them in 1988. They are obviously less precious these days, more mature, marinated, but the show had this kind of feel, somewhat, and not really: