June 11, 2009
The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s performed an energetic and unforgettable show on Wednesday night (June 10), to an overwhelmingly packed crowd at Club 101.
“We love El Paso,” said guitarist Nick Zinner.
The New York based trio is touring in support of their latest disc, “It’s Blitz!”
Many of the tracks on the new disc were written and recorded at El Paso’s own Sonic Ranch studio. Zinner said the group chose the recording studio because it stood out amongst other options.
“It was like a great return for us,” Zinner said about the night’s performance.
“We’ve been trying to schedule a show in El Paso for a while and it worked out,” Zinner said. “It was really great to play at the place where a lot of these songs were written.”
As soon as the house lights went out, the well-rehearsed group commandeered the stage (which was accentuated with a giant revolving eyeball) like a street gang looking to make ears bleed. Vocalist and style chameleon, Karen “The Knockout” O sported a glowing neon mask during the opening number that added a surreal vibe to the group’s onstage mystique.
The crowd was largely female but that didn’t mean the rowdiness was scaled down. The trio ably worked its audience into an ecstatic frenzy, and had many fans shouting along to lyrics and festively tossing water and beer towards the stage.
The group tore through an incendiary set made up of new and old favorites.
Live highlights included “Black Tongue,” off their debut album, “Fever to Tell,” their catchy hit single, “Gold Lion,” which comes off their sophomore effort, “Show Your Bones,” “Zero,” the lead single off their new album, and an acoustic rendering of one of their biggest hits, “Maps.” For the encore, they played powerfully raw renditions of “Y Control” and “Date with the Night.”
Like many great rock trios, it’s amazing how much noise and power three individuals can make and wield like a hammer forged by the rock gods.
O is quite possibly one of the best front women in rock. Her kinetic performance, punctuated with wild dancing and dramatic posing, dazzled the crowd. O’s hypnotically whimsical stage antics, compounded with her natural flash and charisma, make her an undisputed rock queen.
Her vocal style is uncanny and unlike any of her influences or contemporaries. A casual listener’s ears won’t grow weary after a few listens because her vocalizing contains many understated nuances not found in a lot of popular music today. Like a siren, she can seduce listeners with a sweet heartfelt melody and can easily up the ante by sticking the microphone in her mouth and letting out a fierce goose bump-inducing howl.
Zinner prowls within the shadows of the stage like a rock and roll vampire and plays the hell out of his guitars. He is a tasteful and artistically minded guitar powerhouse that provides much of the sneak attack blast that carries many of the group’s tunes. His complexly simple riffs and meaty hooks are a fierce barrage of fuzz rock with new wave tendencies. For a group without a bassist, Zinner’s guitar and occasional synth playing fills the group’s sound like a flash flood. This guy knows how to sound big without sounding like an arena rock cheese ball.
Drummer Brian Chase passionately pounded out the beats with a smile. His playing is a mix of jazz precision and classic rock bravado. His snare chops and acrobatic fills and crashes really define the group’s sound. Chase knows when to be subtle but when he lets loose, it’s like somebody set off a bomb and gives hard proof as to why the drummer is really the nucleus and heartbeat of a band.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a group that knows how to have fun onstage. Their zeal for stage performance is noticeable and is an addictive element for their fans. This rare quality makes them worth seeing over and over again and worthy of their reputation as a ferocious live act.
When the show ended, fans slowly came down from their adrenaline high and were soaked with the kind of sweat that only comes from great sex or a great rock and roll performance.
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De Santiago is a freelance music writer based in El Paso.