Journalism / Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Hollywood Palladium
After the screaming and fast-paced drumbeats of the Blood Brothers came to an end, the space between each audience member at the Hollywood Palladium on Oct. 2 tightened, with little room to move as the anticipation grew stronger before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs hit the stage.
A few minutes went by and the lights dimmed to a florescent green as sweet smoke filled the area. The crowd jumped for joy as Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zimmer entered the stage followed by drummer Brian Chase. Chaos filled the arena as the crowd awaited the arrival of the final band member to make her appearance. A minute later, a woman entered from behind the red curtain dressed in silver overall shorts, a paper-like scarf cut in three with the colors red, yellow and purple and a thin box-shaped silver palette mask over her face. With the flick of her wrist, Karen O revealed her face as the song “Pin” began to play.
The song started slow but broke out into full swing with faster drumbeats and ecstatic guitar riffs and vocals. Rascal kids and young adults sang and jumped, pushed and shoved, crowd-surfed, and at one point, fought each other as Karen danced and jumped along the stage. Karen’s stage presence was childlike and theatrical.
During the faster songs, like “Cheated Hearts” or “Date With the Night,” the smiling Karen O pranced and jumped up and down—spraying the stage with water and creating spastic energy with her crazy facial expressions and flowing hand movements, as if she were a ballerina in sneakers. Zimmer and Chase were rocking out behind their instruments with smiling faces while bobbing their heads from side to side.
Compared to the sound of their albums, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs performed a show that not only gave their listeners a great display of rock and dance, but also an adrenaline high better than what any drug could offer.
Karen’s stage presence was childlike and theatrical. She took control of her audience. Instead of looking bored or uninspired, she made eye contact and danced wildly with her fans and even threw a few flowers out, all of which were torn with each person’s grasp.
At certain times, the crowd would stop and watch Karen crouch down and make some graceful hand movements or cup the microphone with her mouth. The movement of the crowd mimicked a wave in the ocean, pushing forward and backward. Throughout the set, Karen periodically put on her mask and then took it, while wrapping her scarf around her head as if she was a child playing dress-up.
Karen stopped in the middle of performing “Maps” with a look of dissatisfaction on her face and replaced the words “say, say, say” with “stop, stop, stop.” She turned to the crowd and exclaimed, “If this song is gonna be sung, it’s gonna be sung right!” Then “Maps” came to a complete stop before Nick switched his electric with an acoustic guitar and began the song again at a slower pace. The recorded version is already slow as it is, and making it even slower made you want to fall asleep. It was too slow for such an otherwise high-energized show.
After the band exited the stage, the audience responded with a lackluster applause, leading me to think they didn’t have as much as fun I initially thought. But within a few minutes, the crowd chanted “Yeah Yeah Yeahs” repeatedly until Nick poked his head from behind the curtain. One by one, the bandmates came out to perform two more songs.
Overall, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ performance was tight and a better listen than all their albums put together. The drums, guitars and vocals flowed well together, and the half-arena-sized space was enough to clearly hear each note played and sung. It was a performance deserving of every dollar.
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I happen to be a big Yeah Yeah Yeahs fan; unfortunately, they haven’t come my way as far as I know (Indianapolis).
One thing I have noted with many music reviewers: they like to be fairly specific as to what they like musically about a performance: “the guitar chromatics were fairly reminiscent of ‘The Edge’” etc, while simultaneously adding what they would have liked to heard. I think your review gives a good idea of the theatrical excitement and general stage presence of Karen O; it could probably use a little more of purely musical commentary.
“Karen’s …theatrical” I assume was accidentally repeated.
Overall, makes me want to go see them if they are ever fairly close…
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