On the fifth day of Hannukah

25, KatieG and I went to the 5th night of Yo La Tenga's 8 nights of Hannukah extravaganza. Here's what 25 had to report:

Hi there. 25 here, guest-blogging for the day. Gotta pay the bills somehow, I guess.

Anyways, All Carbon asked me to report on the Yo La Tengo Hanukkah we went to on Saturday night. For those of you who have better things to do than obsess over critically acclaimed, moderately commercially successful indie rock bands (are there any other kind?), here's a brief history. Over the past 20 years, YLT (much like Sonic Youth) have aged gracefully into the elder statesmen of noise/art rock by continuing to release superb records and touring their a**es off.

After taking a year off, YLT has returned to their tradition of playing a series of charity shows on each of the 8 nights of Hanukkah-- all the shows take place at teeny-tiny Maxwell's in Hoboken, the band's hometown. Each night has a different special opener (typically a older band who doesn’t play live very often), a guest comedian and at least one unannounced special guest. And per tradition, every show ends with an encore set of cover tunes written by Jewish musicians.

Dew Claw (led by ex Hypnolovewheel guitarist Stephen Hunking) opened the show and also joined YLT during their set. I was relatively unimpressed-- as was our friend KatieG, who in a moment of auditory confusion conceded that she would have been much more excited to see Steven Hawking fronting a psychedelic indie-pop band.

Next up were a pair of comediennes, Sarah Vowell and Amy Poehler. Vowell (of NPR and "The Incredibles" fame) read a short piece that recounted the true story of a disheartened mapmaker on the Oregon Trail. Pretty funny in that NPR sort of way-- meaning of course that you laugh at all the jokes out of fear that the people around you will think you don't get them. Luckily, I had a head start as I had heard Vowell read the same story a year earlier at a different charity show.

Poehler (from SNL, Upright Citizen's Brigade et al) was great, doing a brief and largely-improvised piece on Kabbalah-- the whole time in "disguise" as Ira's (guitarist for YLT) aunt. On a side note, we also saw Poehler's husband Will Arnett (G.O.B. on Arrested Development) milling about in the crowd.

YLT was next, ripping through a 1.5 hour set that included songs from their entire repertoire, including their very first single from 1985. The show could have ended there, and everyone would have left happy-- but for the second night in a row, the band had a very special surprise in store.





Joining YLT for their encore was none other than Alex Chilton-- leader of the fabled early 70s band Big Star. Chilton and Big Star are often seen as the missing link between 1960s guitar pop and the new wave/college radio scene that developed in the early/mid 1980s. I don’t want to be hyperbolic (who am I kidding-- yes I do), but without them there would be no R.E.M., no alternative rock as we knew it in the 1990s. And given Chilton's reclusive tendencies, seeing him play live is the musical equivalent of J.D. Salinger doing a reading at your local Barnes and Noble.

Alex Chilton fronting Yo La Tengo playing the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" followed by a Carol King tune-- it was like watching the evolutionary chart of indie rock implode in front of us. Watching them interact was nothing short of adorable-- there was obviously a mutual admiration and sense of deference on both sides. At least twice Alex asked "Is it OK if I count this one off?-- as if Ira would say no.





It was the perfect Hanukkah gift (sorry, dreidel-- maybe next year).

Note: Most pictures and youtube are from the Dec 7 show the night before.