The Yeah Yeah Yeahs kicked off their World Tour April 3, with a spectacular show before a sold-out crowd at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 club.
The band played a bulk of the songs from their new album “Show Your Bones” but still found time to work in some old favorites during their one-hour set.
“Bones,” the group’s sophomore full length, is shorter, sleeker and a bit softer than 2003’s “Fever to Tell.” Lead singer Karen O is more wistful than aggressive this time around, possibly trying to recapture some of the striking beauty and pureness of the group’s breakout single and live favorite “Maps.” This is especially evident on songs like the hypnotic “Way Out” and the balladry of songs like “Cheated Hearts,” and “Dudley.”
O’s lyrics seem more thought out and mature when compared with the immediacy of “Fever’s” on-the-fly rants. Most of the songs showcase her more tender side as opposed to the in-your-face sexuality of the band’s earlier material.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a unique site onstage. O’s ecstatic, high-energy stage moves immediately evoke images of Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger, though she throws in a heavy dose of riot girl-meets-Rockette kicks and shimmies for good measure.
Guitarist Nick Zinner looks like a younger, more gothed-out Nick Cave, with his pale skin and out of control pompadour, clad head to toe in black. He paces the stage like a caged animal, frantically strumming subdued rhythms between explosions of distortion. Drummer Brian Chase, the “conservative” one, looks like a bookish hipster as he sits behind the drum kit, wearing a set of studio headphones and steadily laying down the beat.
Opening the set with the anthemic “Turn Into,” the strongest and most moving track on the record, the band wasted no time whipping the crowd into a frenzy. The acoustic guitar on the song, provided live by new touring guitarist Imaad Wasif, is reminiscent of the Flaming Lips “Do You Realize” but the drums have a more driving, up-tempo locomotive feel. The lead guitar part is especially gripping, sounding like a hyper-distorted version of the Cure.
The instrumental dynamic has evolved considerably. On “Show Your Bones,” Zinner has added acoustic guitars to most of the tracks as well as more keyboards. The sound is fuller and noticeably more polished than the sharp, angular, rockers from “Fever” and the band’s eponymous debut EP.
The album is also more eclectic than the earlier releases. “Bones” turns and twists in different directions, finding new territory wherever it goes.
A prime example is the offbeat “Mysteries,” a hyperactive psycho-blues tune. Another classic sounding YYY’s tune, sure to please fans of their older material is the hard rocking “Phenomena.”
As the set at the 9:30 Club demonstrated, the group’s live show remains a force to be reckoned with. Though she has shed the spaced-out mullet, O’s appearance was as outrageous as ever, bounding around in her glam-rock Peter Pan outfit, complete with runny purple tights and well-worn Converse high-tops.
Her baby doll voice projected over the cacophony of Chase’s drums and Zinner and Wasif’s guitars, as she spewed Heineken and water on the audience, threw herself around the stage and hid under a red- and black-sequined cloak.
Whether comfortable, intoxicated, or both, the veteran rockers were cool and confident during their performance but not impersonal. O spent much of the show walking to the front of the stage singing into the crowd or leaning down to get into audience members’ faces.
Though the music may have evolved, O’s antics showed that the band was staying true to their punk roots. At one point O shoved the microphone hands-free into her mouth during “Art Star” and screamed, creating massive feedback and no doubt a massive headache for the sound guy.
The band closed their first set with, “Gold Lion,” the first single from the “Bones.” It is the most stylistically familiar tune on the new record. Even with the acoustic main riff, the larger-than-life vocals and booming electric guitar are unmistakably Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
The most obvious departure, and possibly the best of the new songs, was not included during the live set and is not even on the album. The playful sing-along, “Let Me Know” is charmingly simple, with Karen O cooing to the object of her affections to make her feelings clear. The song can be found as the B-side to the “Gold Lion” single.
As the evening wound down, O asked for audience requests before eventually settling on “Date With the Night.”
Closing with “Poor Song” the hidden track from “Fever to Tell,” O bade farewell to the audience as she slowly and deliberately sang the last line in the song “Cool kids.they belong together.”
The entire set is available to stream or downloaded at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5313569.