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| Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Photo by Stacy Schwartz |
The crowds at Thursday and Friday nights’ shows didn’t seem to care. They just wanted to jump around a little, clap their hands a lot (trite, but true) and enjoy a good show. Both shows’ sets were dominated by songs from their self-titled debut album, including “Is This Love,” “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth,” and “Heavy Metal,” all of which inspired unison head bobbing.
CYHSY skipped “Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)” at Thursday night’s show for the first time in many shows according to drummer, Sean Greenhalgh, but resurfaced it for a highlight of Friday’s show. Also on Friday, the lyrics of “Gimme Some Salt” were just as hard to understand in person as on the album, but the song served as a strong warm-up to the high-energy “Satan Said Dance.”
Before the break, lead singer Alec Ounsworth busted out the megaphone for the love-it-or-hate-it carnival anthem “Clap Your Hands” - which somehow sounded less obnoxious live – before heading into “Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood.” A friend of mine insists this tune was written about Lindsay Lohan ("They are going out to bars and they are getting into cars. I have seen them with my own eyes. America, please help them.”), although I’m not sure the shenanigans of young Hollywood actresses top this Brooklyn-based band’s social issues list.
For an encore, CYHSY invited members of opener Elvis Perkins in Dearland to play horns on “Goodbye to the Mother and the Cover” (sometimes called – and listed on the set list as - “She Smiles”) although bassist Brigham Brough (the envy of every guy in the room whose girlfriend won’t let him grow a mustache) apparently missed the cue and joined in half-way through the song. On the final “Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away,” Ounsworth showcased his signature vocal temper tantrum – whining, screaming and shrieking for frenzied fans for four minutes but only uttering fifty-five actual words.
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Robbie Guertin of CYHSY
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On Friday, as a precursor to Saturday’s record-breaking heat, temps inside the 400 were uncomfortable at best. Ounsworth asked to have the lights turned down because of the heat, noting, “It’s okay if we can’t see our instruments … it’s okay if you guys can’t see us, right?” Those who sneaked outside for a song to cool off returned to find the air even thicker, hotter, and more foul-smelling than when they left it. One younger fan who hadn’t yet learned the art of layering for shows – as demonstrated by her thigh-high boots and chunky knit sweater – wondered aloud, “It’s like they don’t want to pay for air conditioning or something…”
Sweat-soaked-shirts aside, we were lucky to see CYHSY at a venue as small as the 400. The played a great set at Lollapalooza in Chicago two months earlier, but CYHSY are at their best in smaller venues, energy ping-ponging back and forth between the crowd and the band.
Location Info:
Fine Line Music Café
Artist Info: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
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