Brooklyn band Yeasayer are in Sydney for a headline performance as part of the traveling Laneway Festival juggernaut; in support of their latest psychedelically dense and beautiful album, Fragrant World.
For Chris Keating, Ira Wolf-Tuton, and Anand Wilder, they bring an impressive world renowned performance on what is their fourth visit to these shores.
Support is from local Sydney act Oliver Tank who is a one-man virtuoso.
Much like James Blake, Tank used auto-tune mixes for his repetitious lyrics and fiddled with programming different beats, all whilst wielding an electric guitar to create constant loops of dreamy escapism.
Unfortunately it’s lost on the audience tonight who constantly chatted throughout; perhaps the music is better suited with quieter surroundings in a smaller, more intimate venue.
By contrast, the punters warmly greeted Yeasayer as they graced the stage, kicking off tonight’s proceedings with ‘Blue Paper’, which was quickly followed by ‘Henrietta’; the funk element of the song had the punters shuffle their feet with approval.
The band has continued their love affair with synthesisers but continued to produce weird melodic pop gems. Anand Wilder had a collection of samplers and other gizmos of which he twisted and turned creating alien-like sounds.
Early into the set we are treated to ‘2080’, arguably one of the band’s strongest offerings from debut album All Hour Cymbal. Yeasayer was in full flight at this point with the psychedelic light show, combined with the intense strobe lighting, sendingh the crowd into mild chaos.
The infectious “O.N.E.” triumphed next, with Chris Keating doing his best impersonation of Midnight Oil’s Peter Garret; the song itself has been reworked from electropop to a slower, almost house funk beat.
It’s ironic to know that this song was written about alcoholism, but this had no baring on the crowd, who jumped up and down so high it looked like pogo sticks had been handed out.
There were a couple of flat spots in the middle of the set when Fragrant World’s ‘Demon Road’ and ‘Folk Hero Shtick’ were played.
They sounded like a piece of twisted disco and perhaps are not as anthem-like as the previous songs’ complex and layered sounds. Lyrically the songwriting seemed fragmented with the weird and warped electro, but therein lies the beauty of Yeasayer – a band that can easily write a pop tune for the masses, yet chooses to challenge the listener instead.
Arguably the best song on the latest offering is ‘Reagan’s Skeleton’. With its gothic feel, the shimmering synths and a fuzzed out bass line reverberated off the walls of the Metro. Keating wildly moved between synth setup and microphone whilst he threw his arms passionately toward the crowd.
They finished the main set with ‘Ambling Alp’, only one of three songs from Odd Blood to be played tonight. An amazing three-part harmony followed with the ever enthusiastic audience shouting back to the stage with “Stick up for yourself, son!”
It was a quick off-on stage moment before the encore began with ‘Devil and the Deed’ as Anand Wilder took the centre-stage vocally. Cale Park drummed like a mad man as Wilder grabbed another gizmo in his hand to add a further intricate sound during the chorus.
It was a real treat when ‘Tightrope’ (from the Dark Was The Night compilation) was delivered in a re-incarnated form. And suitably they finished with ‘Wait for the Summer’ (from debut album All Hour Cymbals) with its middle eastern psych beats.
Keating and punters united, drowning out the music with “Rising, rising, falling down/ I’m rising, rising, falling down.” Once again, the creative geniuses that are Yeasayer delivered and not a single soul left disappointed.
