Words: Tyler Fassnacht | Photos: Ed Oliver
The last time I had seen Yeasayer was on the Terrace last summer, long before Odd Blood, so I was excited to see what a new album would bring to their live show. I must also say that I had no idea Madison loved Yeasayer so much. It was a sold out show at the Majestic, which is not an super easy task.
Opening the show was Sleigh Bells. Now through various blogs and news sites I have read a lot of hype on this band, especially for their live shows, so my expectations for this dance/noise/industrial duo were quite high. I think the lead singer for Yeasayer put it best when later in the show he thanked Sleigh Bells for touring with them stating “they’re one tough act to follow.” With beats that shook to the bone and gritty distorted guitars, the music definitely comes off unique, but their real secret weapon is singer Alexis Krauss. Prowling the stage, Krauss was aggressive, seductive, and most of the time plain crazy, climbing on to amps and letting out screams like ambulance sirens. The music was simple, the lyrics were mostly just repeated phrases, but it was hard not to get into. Krauss’ charisma went a long way, with the audience practically eating out of her hand, as everyone clambered over each other to touch her when she leaned into the crowd. For their last song, the extremely catchy “Crown on the Ground,” she prefaced it with a request, no, a command, “everyone go fucking nuts for this song!” and the Majestic immediately obliged.
By the time Yeasayer came on it was hard to move comfortably, and from the first notes of opening song “The Children” the crowd went crazy. Throughout the show the audience kept a similar mantra of being a little overexcited about small things (I mean, I GUESS that one vocal harmony during that one song was pretty spot on). Playing in front of a backdrop of four oval screens, shifting through stimulating shades of color, Yeasayer went through approximately an hour of material, leaning heavily of course on Odd Blood. For me, that would be my only complaint, as I was not a huge fan of the new album. Even live, some of the songs came off as boring and even cheesy (I’m looking at you “Rome”). Also, coming off from the high that was Sleigh Bells, it was hard to promptly get in to Yeasayer, as they started their set a bit slow, eventually getting to the more up-tempo world beats that everyone loves to dance to. The band members seemed to take a few songs to get in to it as well. No one smiled for at least four songs, which was strange because I never saw them as a band who took themselves really seriously. Eventually, like their songs, the band got in the swing of things and lightened up. It may have just been that the band was really tired, especially the lead singer, or in his case completely stoned, though that is just speculation from his general movements. By the end of the show, the band had a few elements which saved the show from being just “good”: a kick-ass rhythm section, a back catalogue of awesome songs from their first album and of course the addictive “Ambling Alp,” which they ended their standard set with, before the encore. As a whole it was all a very enjoyable evening filled with sweaty guys and lots of dancing, with the music just barely justifying the hype.
Buy: Yeasayer – Odd Blood
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MP3: Yeasayer – “O.N.E.”
MP3: Yeasayer – “Ambling Alp”
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which was just given 
