February 29, 2024 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Esa George
Yo La Tengo made their way to Colorado during fifth Block Break. My friend, Tasha Finkelstein ’25, and I had tickets to their Friday night show in Boulder, Colo. We were initially going to arrive by the intended start time of the band, however, this trio is known for going on stage just about 15 to 20 minutes after 8 p.m. So, we knew we were cutting it close after doors opened at 7 p.m.
For bands touring without an opener, it is a beauty sometimes, we reflected, and a curse other times…especially when you’re caught in snow and your tire pressures are low, as per usual. For the sake of being major fans, we allowed morale to remain abundant even though deep down we knew the odds of making it were dwindling as the clock remained at 2:59 hours until arrival.
An hour later, still, 2:59 hours until arrival.
Thirty minutes later, trudging at a low mileage of 15 miles per hour in a 70 mile-per-hour lane, 2:59 hours remained on my now enemy, Google Maps screen. I had recently, for this trip, made the switch from Apple to Google Maps, and this newness came with a curse to my road trip inclinations.
Tasha and I, finally, when it was clear we would not make it before 10 p.m., decided the doors were likely closed anyway, and we should plan to purchase tickets for their show the following night in Fort Collins, Colo. We could not officially let the fates decide we weren’t meant to see the band, so we intercepted this bad luck…by monitoring StubHub ticket prices routinely.
This was a marvelous decision, one that healed our defeats from the night before. And what is better than making the trip to a new Colorado city?
Yo La Tengo is a band from Hoboken, New Jersey, formed by Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley in 1984, and James NcNew joined them in 1992.
Their chemistry is undeniable. They are the very definition of rock stars, and the uniqueness of their setlist is a testament to their immeasurable cult following that just keeps on coming back for more.
The first time I saw Yo La Tengo, I remember anxiously preparing to see them with my older sister, Sophia, in Georgetown, D.C. She sort of has this music attention span that I cannot quite read nor get an adequate grasp on, so I felt I must prepare her for the music of YLT.
I probably used the words “you may find them boring” or “it’s a heavy emphasis on the sounds.” Because I just wasn’t ready to show someone something that means so much to me, music that is quite literally to my ears…in my ears…and out with the memories, the nostalgia, the taste and sense and serenity of a sound I want to bring to every place I call my home for the rest of my life.
Upon “preparing” for our concert going together in March 2023, I began to research a standard Yo La Tengo setlist. I came to find out, not just in recent trends, yet in career wise and career wide astounding data pools (devoted collectors of setlist mappings and graphs connecting the dots of albums) that they do not do the typical mainstream artist/musician thing of having a concrete setlist of hits.
I remember being like “well shit!” My sister won’t even know the songs they play. Therefore, she will get so bored?
Flash forward to the end of the concert in March 2023. A concrete setlist of hits was certainly and definitely not needed. Perhaps a blessing to me as I found some of my favorite deep cuts from those three hours. Yet, I still heard my sister yapping (respectfully): “When will they play Autumn Sweater?” Maybe the fourth or fifth time she asked about “Tears Are in Your Eyes,” I finally gave the shush with real tears in my eyes after they gifted us “I’ll Be Around.”
I love my sister; she is actually a musician herself. Go check out Sophia Marie on Spotify. She is an artist who leans into the lyricism, and so the shoegazy-hallow sounds of Yo La Tengo can often come into dispute with the power of poetry in songwriting. However, she loved their sonic, eerie instrumental landscapes just as much as me.
So, what is it like attending a Yo La Tengo concert? The crowd is heavily millennial, which is often a reflection of great music magic. I have a couple of concert crowds to compare it to: Bright Eyes in Los Angeles and Eels (the band), at the famous Fonda Theater.
Contrary to the beauty, the empathy, the delicate kindness of so much of Yo La Tengo’s lyrics, their calm verbal introductions of the band, the way they address their audience, we encountered some concertgoers who just did not embody the musical environment that we were enthralled in.
During the final song before their encore, a 16-minute-guitar-rip-sesh (it felt never ending in the best way), titled “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind,” my friend and I were asked to “move it” to the right side a little because we were, apparently, ruining the concert for “everyone around us.” An insane exaggeration due to our brief moment of unhinged excitement once “Fallout” started playing, segueing right into my all-time favorite: “Sugarcube.”
Do not go to a concert for silent, listening sake if you are going to be a drag and destroy the fun and joy of fans of the music. What was stopping me from turning around and asking, “name five songs?” Their stillness was not stoic, as they continued to complain loudly the second the lights came up after encore. I see that as more destructive to a concert experience than some enthusiastic, jumpy fans, attempting to mosh together for no more than two songs.
An assortment of conversations with fellow fans around us led us to really bask in the glory of Yo La Tengo’s audience, their reach and their influence on listeners and countless other formative rock bands. People surrounding us were “loosely” touring with the band on tour, as they impulsively purchased tickets after attending the show from the night before.
Six audience members in our direct vicinity had seen them the night before, and one guy expressed that the chance to hear them play an entirely different and new assortment of songs is reason enough to keep coming back. There is variety. There are those cricket sounds. And there is a whole lot of love in that place.