Fresh off the release of the critically acclaimed "I'm Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass," indie legends Yo La Tengo came to the 9:30 Club last Monday in hopes of stirring up the crowd and sending them into a dance frenzy. Unfortunately, the crowd had other plans, and except the sporadic drunkards dancing throughout the audience, there were hardly any signs of excitement.
If there were any signs of boredom in the crowd before the show, they were only perpetuated by the opening act, Oakland trio Why?.
While Why?'s cute style seemed at first to be greeted with open arms by the audience, the gimmick wore off after the 20-minute mark. It became apparent that the singer was wearing on the crowd, as his smug remarks about taking a new amphetamine from Hawaii were met with dead silence.
After the interlude, the lights hit and the three members of Yo La Tengo came on stage. The crowd cheered for the set. The shouts were quickly subdued when Yo La Tengo launched into a new song from their latest record, "Beanbag Chair." While the song was cutesy and poppy, it did not seem as if it was a strong opener and the crowd at best bobbed their heads and tried to sing along.
The new album from Yo La Tengo has received much praise from critics, but perhaps it was just too recent for many of the fans in attendance. They were unable to recognize many of the songs and the crowd did not react in any huge way when the songs were played and very little in attendance actually knew the songs they were singing.
From that point on, the rest of the set seemed hit or miss with the crowd. The second song they played was the crowd favorite, "The Story of Yo La Tango." But it was awkwardly led into and seemed to stretch on for far too long.
The feedback and distortion seemed lost on many in attendance, as the crowd could be seen covering their ears from the racket emanating from the monitors in the 9:30 Club.
While Yo La Tengo did play crowd favorites such as "Our Little Corner of the World" and "Our Way to Fall" - songs that garnered cheers from the crowd- the cheers were quickly subdued once the songs were over and Yo La Tengo launched into another new song.
After a certain point, Yo La Tengo did in fact begin to play their more famous songs, like "Today is the Day" and "The Last Days of Disco."
While Yo La Tengo did come back up for an encore, they failed to garner more than drunken "yeahs" and "woohoo's" from the crowd, as many in attendance could often be seen yawning or looking at their shoes.
By this time, it felt as if Yo La Tengo was playing to try and at least appease the crowd and the concert promoters on what was clearly an off night for the band.
When the concert ended, the crowed scurried very quickly out into the line of cabs and it seemed as if the 9:30 Club cleared out faster than usual.
This was not because Yo La Tengo played badly, as they were musically exceptional. On this night, it seemed as if Yo La Tengo simply fell victim to a tired working class crowd experiencing the "Tuesday Slump"
