Yeah Yeah Yeahs 9/12/09

I had high expectations from this gig but I have to admit they weren't met. I had got myself an unreserved balcony seat for this sold out gig and I was very glad as the standing area was packed even before the support act came on. They were "Duchess Says" from Montreal and I thought they were good. There was a tight and pacey rhythm section of drums and bass and a moog player who played some energetic lead and rhythm. The singer came on looking somewhere between Carol Baker as "Baby Doll" and Joan Crawford as in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane". She was also dancing like a convulsive marionette and shrieking quite a bit but it all hung together and was entertaining. She also did the most extreme audience immersion I have seen at one point standing on a table and swinging from a lighting scaffold before jumping on some guy's shoulders.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs came on and it rapidly became clear that as far as Karen and the audience was concerned this was mainly the Karen O show. I like a bit of showmanship but costume changes are a stage too far for me. The main point for me was that the music seemed to be less of a focus and rather than adding to what is on disc the show was a lesser version. The guitarist was very good and Karen's singing was also good most of the time but the drummer was workmanlike at best and the same applies to the fourth member of the band.

Some tracks stood out for me - "Hysteric", "Y Control" and "Turn Into" were all good and an acoustic version of "Maps" which began the encore. Otherwise it was a bit samey and not that long at about 75 minutes all told.