I sometimes draw comparisons between the Grateful Dead and Yo La Tengo, and if you can bear to follow me you might see that I'm not crazy. I'm the first to admit that their respective musical styles have little in the way of obvious likeness. But each approaches, or approached, the live performance with a strong sense of the event, determined to ensure that no two shows were ever going to be the same. Having now concluded their traditional string of Hanukkah shows at Maxwell's in Hoboken, Yo La Tengo did little to diffuse that notion. Like the Dead, they played several consecutive nights in a favorite city, and dished out playlists each night that varied wildly from show to show. As the Dead often paid homage to inspirations like Bob Dylan and favorite bluegrass performers with inspired reinventions through cover songs, so did Yo La Tengo pay tribute to influences like the Velvet Underground, The Flaming Groovies, The dB's, and Alex Chilton. Garcia and company were no strangers to psychedelic rock, jamming away with free-form abandon to renew familiar songs, and Hoboken's favorite threesome did the same with feedback-drenched freakouts that stretched and pushed the sonic familiarity of old favorites. Both bands own the ability to switch gears between electric rockers and acoustic songs without losing a single bit of momentum or audience attention.
There are, of course, some differences between the two. I doubt The Grateful Dead ever had difficulty getting the stage menorah to light, and I'm almost certain that they never hosted an "Ask the Rabbi" Q&A before a show.
Here we present a few highlights from the week:
A familiar Hanukkah show number, Eight Days a Week.
Until this week, I'd never caught a live performance of one of my all-time fave songs from the band, Sugarcube.
Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones reinvented as a surf instrumental.
An unbelievable confluence of musical greats collide as Alex Chilton teams up with Yo La Tengo to present the Velvet Underground's Femme Fatale.
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