[photo by Jesse Jarnow]
The show was announced on Monday, tickets went on sale on Tuesday, and on Wednesday night Yo La Tengo was back at Maxwell’s — three months removed from their amazing Hannukah run. And this night definitely felt like Hannukah redux, with brutal weather and special guests in the building. Jesse Jarnow, who is writing a comprehensive biography of Yo La Tengo, wrote an excellent piece about this concert in the Village Voice. Here is his rundown of the appearance of one of those special guests:
[David] Byrne, last seen with the Tengos at Maxwell’s during Hanukkah 2002, came up at the end of the first set to add harmony to “Tears Are In Your Eyes.” The once head-Head introduced a new song, an addendum to his disco-pop opera Here Lies Love. Speaking of “the People Power Revolution” in the Philippines and declaring he intended to write an anthem, Byrne looked and sounded–in his overalls–as if he’d stepped straight from some neo-futurist pro-union propaganda wallpaper as he recalled, for a moment, the Velvet (Czechslovakian), Orange (Ukranian), and Jasmine (Tunisian) Revolutions. The song itself was more typically Byrne, a ballad in Caetano Veloso mode, lush chords and a melody cleverly knotted to accommodate tons of words — and, one night only, Georgia Hubley adding an empathetic sweetness to the chorus. But the winner of Byrne’s mini-set was a mournful, Tengoized “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel,” Georgia translating the song’s galloping tom fills into lonesome mallet thumps.
Perhaps energized by the excitement of the Byrne appearance, YLT came out smoking for the second set and treated the crowd to a phenomenal 15-minute “Pass The Hatchet” among other treats. The appearance late in the second set by The Feelies’ Glenn Mercer rounded out of the evening in perfect fashion, and the rousing closing Velvet Underground cover is provided as a stream below.
I recorded this set from our standard location in this venue. On this night, YLT was without Mark their longtime soundman. Carson, the house engineer at Maxwell’s filled in quite admirably and the sound quality in the venue all night was superb. This high quality of this recording is a testament to Carson’s talents. Enjoy!
Stream “Run Run Run”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/Y6644YLT9879/31.%20Run%20Run%20Run%20%5bVelvets%5d.mp3]
This concert took place to raise money for Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami relief through the charitable organization Peace Winds Japan. A donation to that charity will be required in order to download this recording.
If you wish to download this recording Email nyctaper with a copy of your charitable donation receipt from Peace Winds Japan and specify if you would like to download the concert in FLAC or MP3.
PLEASE DO NOT REPOST OR PASS ALONG THE DOWNLOAD LOCATION. Support the cause.
Yo La Tengo
2011-03-23
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA
Benefit For Peace Winds Japan
http://peace-winds.org/en/
Digital Master Recording
Four Channel Soundboard + Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2011-03-24
Setlist:
Set 1:
[Total Time 1:08:06]
01 Introduction
02 I Am Just A Mops [The Mops]
03 Sudden Organ
04 Moby Octopad
05 Little Eyes
06 [banter]
07 Dave [Will Rigby]
08 [banter – merch]
09 Periodically Double or Triple
10 A Plea For Dump
11 [banter2]
12 Black Flowers
13 [Byrne intro]
14 Tears Are In Your Eyes
15 [God intro]
16 God Draws Straight [David Byrne]
17 Give Me Flowers While I’m Living [Flatt/Scruggs]
18 Thank You For Sending Me An Angel [Talking Heads]
Set2:
[Total Time 1:07:57]
19 Come See Me [The Pretty Things]
20 Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind
21 Decora
22 Sugarcube
23 [banter – Amy]
24 The Words Get Stuck In My Throat
25 Season Of The Shark
26 Mr. Tough
27 Cherry Chapstick
28 It’s Only Life [Feelies]
29 On The Roof [Feelies]
30 From A Motel 6
31 Run, Run, Run [Velvets]
If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, that means you’ve already donated to Peace Winds Japan. Thank you for your donation to support Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami Relief.
What a great gig for a great cause! Thanks so much for recording it!
Thanks for being there yet again to capture the magic & the hope of the evening. And thanks for furthering cause w/ donations link in order to d/l.
Peace!
I am really happy to announce that people who have downloaded this recording have raised over $1500 in contributions that went directly to Peace Winds Japan. Every single person who requested this download forwarded their receipts — some were modest and some were very generous, but all were meant to help and I’m confident that we’ve all done our little piece to assist in this time of tragedy.
Thank you nyctaper readers for your generosity of funds and of spirit. I’m proud to have been a small part of this endeavor.
The donations keep coming in. The people who have downloaded this recording have now contributed over $2700 to Peace Winds Japan.
The final total for the amount of donations from our readers was over $3000 directly to Peace Winds Japan.