Photo by Daniel Ojeda
Yo La Tengo at Turner Hall 2023
Yo La Tengo at Turner Hall
It’s been a decade since Yo La Tengo last played Milwaukee, but Hoboken’s second-most famous musical act made the most of it Saturday night at Turner Hall. (It seems the band also played a surprise three-song set at Discovery World back in 2007. Go figure.)
Touring the new album This Stupid World, the trio delivered a generous helping of that record over two sets that satisfied fans of the group’s acoustic side as well plenty of noisy, damaged rock and roll. With nearly four decades of Yo La Tengo there was no shortage of deep cuts and nods to influences.
Opening with the pastoral raga rock of “This Stupid World,” Ira Kaplan’s open-tuned guitar rang over Georgia Hubley’s shimmering cymbals. The extended “Sinatra Drive Breakdown” offered the evening’s first jolt, as would a neat segue later into The Urinals “Ack Ack Ack.” Hubley’s delicate “Aselestine” offered a balance to draw the listener in.
As the evening unfolded, Kaplan, Hubley and bassist James McNew played musical chairs, moving to keyboards, trading instruments and taking turns at the mic. Hubley’s plaintive vocals in the first set were balanced by Kaplan’s guitar freakouts later.
With the acoustic guitars seemingly, safely out of reach, Yo La Tengo opened the second set with “And the Glitter Is Gone,” a sonic cathedral that set the tone for the next stretch of music. Before the end of the set, in a gesture of rock and roll as vox populi, Kaplan would offer his Stratocaster to the audience to pass around and crowd surf before returning it to him. As if to magnify the group’s omnivorous musical schizophrenia, they returned for an encore opening with the manic “I Heard Her Call My Name” by the Velvet Underground. “We’re going to end with a lullaby,” Kaplan said as Hubley joined him at the front as they finished with an acoustic arrangement of The Flamin’ Groovies “You Tore Me Down.”
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