Clap Your Hands Say Yeah with Architecture in Helsinki at First Avenue on 10/4/06

By: Ryan Ruff Smith

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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Photo by Ryan Ruff Smith

If you ever read about music on the internet (which obviously, you do), you have probably heard of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.  There is a chance that you just remember them for their willfully clunky moniker, but by now you have probably heard the story of their blog-fueled ascent from the basement and how they have become the poster children for the sea change in independent music brought about by internet hype.   Wednesday night, CYHSY sought to prove that they could live up to the high expectations, playing to a sold-out First Avenue crowd on the merit of just one album that was released a year ago.  And they came prepared for the challenge, with moody rock star lighting and a smooth, consistent set, showing all of the trappings of the big ticket act they have so suddenly become.

The evening was kicked off by Brooklyn's Takka Takka, who pleased the crowd with a fine mix of indie rock and alt-country; but their sound was surprisingly straight considering the acts they were supporting.  They were followed by Architecture in Helsinki, a hyperactive oddball pop collective from Melbourne, Australia.  Judging from the enthusiastic audience response and overheard post-show buzz, they stole the show for many concert-goers. Featuring constant instrument-swapping and a rotating cast of lead vocalists (though centered around Cameron Bird and Kellie Sutherland), the sextet had heads spinning and toes tapping.  Their music is a delightful conglomeration of complex indie-pop and goofy eighties pastiche, and it came out sounding something like a high-speed collision between Belle and Sebastian and the B52s (head explodes).  They played a nice mix of songs from their excellent 2005 release In Case We Die and new tunes from their forthcoming album, which is in the works and untitled as of yet.  The preview of the new material certainly had me excited for the band's future, but the highlights were familiar songs such as the lite-funk of "Do The Whirlwind," the hyper-‘80s "Wishbone," and the oddly punctuated "It'5!"  But the band reached their live peak with the In Case We Die opening track, the mini-suite "Nevereverdid."   It captured the band at their ADD, over-the-top, pseudo-operatic peak.

They were, as they say, a tough act to follow.  But although Clap Your Hands Say Yeah couldn't match their rambunctious energy, they clearly had more fans in the crowd.  They entered to an ovation worthy of the buzz and launched into the angular "Gimmie Some Salt" to much excitement.  Throughout the course of the evening they played through every song from their self-titled debut (minus the two transitional instrumentals) and a handful of new songs.  Work on their follow-up is currently underway with producer David Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev), which suggests they are going all-out to back up their claim to the hype-king throne.  Live, though, the new songs didn't sound like much of a departure from the debut, featuring the same type of instrumentation and song structure.  The highlight among the batch of new tunes was "For Now Yankee Go Home," which the band said was in fact an extremely new song and featured what may be their hookiest chorus yet.   

It was the first time I had seen the band live, and their performance served to demystify them a bit.  Since they seemingly came out of nowhere last year, it was hard to pinpoint just what it was that made their sound so unique.  With his odd, nasal warble of a singing voice (often compared to David Byrne), I half-expected front man Alec Ounsworth to look like one of the odd cartoon characters from their album artwork (maybe the T-Rex?).  But he was just a regular looking hipster dude with a cool hat, and his guitar-playing consisted mostly of simple barre-chord strumming. 

Most of the instrumental hooks were actually buried in Tyler Sargent's bass lines, which is what gave the band their propulsive sound.   None of the players were really doing anything too complicated, but the way their parts interlocked provided inertia for Ounsworth's abstract songs.  The enthusiastic crowd sang along with the bits of lyrical phrases that rose to the surface, but most of the lyrics were largely inscrutable (especially when delivered in Ounsworth's singing voice).  Rather than detracting, this masking of the lyrics (which are in fact quite evocative) added to the feeling of oddness that is uniquely Ounsworth's.  I am still surprised that his aesthetic appeals to such a broad range of people, but it was good to see that their songs still sound fresh after a year of scrutiny.

As exciting as their unlikely success story is, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have more pressure on them now than they ever could have imagined a year ago.  It seems their next album will ultimately make or break them, as the blogosphere is not kind to any band that they perceive as a fluke.  But in the interim, it's nice to enjoy CYHSY for what they are – a very good band with a lot of potential.  Let's just hope that our colossal expectations don't prove too unreasonable.

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Location Info: First Avenue
Artist Info: Architecture in Helsinki, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

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