Queens, New York, October 1: The Brooklyn band staged a noisy celebration in honor of their album “Cool It Down”.
“If young Karen Oh, my God… if I saw this show, I’d be fucking thrilled!” says the formidable frontwoman of the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, as the intro to “Cards” slowly looms in the background. “It means the whole world to me, it means the whole world to me today,” she adds, dedicating the heartbreaking ballad to the “deeply soulful, very brilliant Asian—American women” the New York band chose to open. for their sold-out party in honor of the release of “Cool It Down”. “It may not seem like it, but to me it feels like a story in the making,” she says.
Linda Lindas, a Los Angeles-based punk band with an average age of 14, launches the dream line-up on a rainy day in Queens, New York. The tennis court, which now also serves as the venue for the Cool It Down party, is covered with water, and the Forest Hills Stadium is decorated with fans in ponchos, which, according to the young rockers, makes the crowd look “cool and brilliant.”
In the moments of Linda Lindas’ high-speed set, it’s easy to understand why the legendary New York indie rockers chose them as support. At their young age, they have already mastered primitive punk-growl, incredible stage charisma and a careless attitude. The Linda Lindas are the obvious rock proteges of “Yeah Yeah Yeahs”, and two decades later, the group reflecting alliteration is the obvious fruit of post-punk labor.
Linda Lindas PROVIDING: Emilio Hers
Japanese breakfast (also known as Michelle Zauner) with intricate braids and a yellow dress shimmering with the same shades as the flowers circling her gong, brings a more restrained, but at the same time inexhaustible energy to the next scene. Starting with the cinematic “Paprika” with a smile from ear to ear, before sharing the sweet romantic track “Be Sweet”, Zauner may not immediately imitate the same raucous and cheeky energy as her fellow cast members. Nevertheless, the emotions permeating her lyricism, and even the irritated and excited vocals with which she adorns her ears during the chorus of “Everybody Wants To Love You” are a warning about the passionate headline of the evening.
When it’s their turn to take the baton, guitarist Nick Zinner, drummer Brian Chase and O receive a deafeningly joyful greeting from the fans. “This is the biggest show in New York that we have ever played,” declares Fr. “And it only took 22 years!”
She continues with irritation and tearful delight: “I do not know where to start, but let’s go. I can’t tell you how joyful tonight is for “Yes, Yes, Yes.”
The song “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World”, inspired by Bowie, was the initiator of their album and the band’s first new music in more than a decade. She’s on their setlist. The energetic performance of the track brings levity to its ominous theme of impending climate collapse, and when the band dedicates the song to the younger generation, optimism is in the air while fans dance to the lyrics about the apocalypse.
Despite the fact that the fast hits “Heads Will Roll” and the newcomer “Wolf” scatter like a house on fire, the band proves that the passage of time has not affected their entertainment, some of the quieter moments in the set stand out against the background of the evening mood. Highlights.
The smooth synthesizer track “Blacktop” fascinates the audience, who listen attentively as O whispers the words: “One to one, we swing, and all the pain flows / opens, opens, opens.” The moment of the spoken word in “Cool It Down” is well reproduced live, because O recalls: “When I was young and light, at the mercy of his means …”, as if she tells the lived moment in real time.
The night is also full of dedications: to youth, “lovers” and family, as the insatiable vocalist appeals to the fact that the Zinner family, Chase’s family and her family are all present.
As the band revs up “Date With The Night” at the end of the encore, the same electricity that seems to ooze from Karen O’s crimson, shiny fringed gloves floods the crowd. There is a recognition of what has just been witnessed. Not just a release party, but a testament to what the listeners who have been watching the band over the past decades have experienced for themselves.
“Yeah Yeah Yeahs” shines with the rebelliousness and unstoppable spirit that continue to inspire generations of musicians, they are raw and deeply felt. It’s an energy that could be felt in Forest Hills on a Saturday night, from the front rows to the nosebleed. It’s the same delightful and audacious energy that made New Yorkers return to their home neighborhoods, rejoicing that they saw the “Yeah Yeah Yeahs” decorating their hometown again.
“Spit on the edge of the world”
“Deceived hearts”
“Blah
