Yeasayer @ R Bar - 19 October 2007

Okay so I should probably begin by apologizing for the shitty picture. If you toiled through the endless throngs of free bloody-mary-and-redbull/vodka-fueled partygoers at R Bar yesterday then maybe you’d understand. How impossible it was to actually get into the annexed “stage” (correction: “champagne room,” the gaudy stripper poles squealed with delight) at the rear of R Bar. How, despite being crammed beyond capacity, people kept shoving themselves into the room like fat clowns in a circus car. How I was stupid enough to post up by the entrance and thus absorb the impact of every fat clown making his/her way into the room. How every attempt to take a picture ended up being a picture of someone else in front of me taking a picture. I could go on and on about this (yet maybe we should just patiently wait for Matt’s inevitable Black Kids post) - instead I’ll just get down to the facts at hand: Yeasayer rocks.

Wow. I’m not even sure how to describe their sound except to say that at one or many points throughout their 5-song set I heard the following elements: Men at Work, Annie Lennox, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Joy Division, AND for some reason that only makes sense in my head and I know I will get crucified for this…wait for it…an inconceivably tasteful Nickelback in the hook for “Final Path.” And I LOVED it. Yeesh.

This band was simply fantastic live, a delightful surprise that made all the clawing and clamoring at R Bar seem strangely justified. Now, I’m not necessarily in the loop of “the next next big thing” so I’m guessing based on their busy CMJ schedule – and of course amazing live show – that Yeasayer has already been anointed as such? You tell me. Because maybe it’s about time that Ear Farm joins in the bloggo-echo chamber by saying that they damn well should be.

Finally, another job well done to Brooklyn Vegan for yet again hosting one of the most impressive CMJ lineups of the week.

See Yeasayer Live – US Dates:
23 October – Record Release Party at Glasslands
24 October – Washington, DC @ Rock ‘n Roll Hotel w/Celebration
28 October – New York – Crown Point Festival @ Abrons Art Center

Listen:
“Final Path”

See pictures of Yeasayer (from this show, taken by someone else) HERE.

Visit Yeasayer on MySpace