Yo La Tengo at the Bowery Ballroom

Guest harpist Mary Lattimore with Ira Kaplan

Born in Queens, New York, Ira Kaplan in his 20s wrote about music for local publications and worked as a soundman, roadie and backup musician for several New York-area bands. He and drummer/pianist/vocalist Georgia Hubley formed Yo La Tengo (often abbreviated as YLT) as an indie rock band in 1984 in Hoboken, New Jersey. They chose the name Yo La Tengo (Spanish for "I have it" or "I have her") in an effort to avoid any connotations in English. In its early years, the band went through 14 bassists but then stabilized with current bassist James McNew in 1992. Yo La Tengo's 14th and most recent album is 2015's Stuff Like That There.

After a five-year hiatus, Yo La Tengo revived its long-running Eight Days of Hanukkah concert series, this year at the Bowery Ballroom. Each night the opening music acts and comedians were unannounced in advance; on this, the second night, Los Straitjackets and Neil Hamburger were the support acts. Yo La Tengo tonight opened its set with two instrumentals with Los Straitjackets, and harmonious with the luchador-masked surf rockers, the members of Yo La Tengo also wore masks for those songs. Renowned harpist Mary Lattimorealso joined the band for the entire set. The concert showed the two distinct sides of Yo La Tengo; much of the first half of the set featured hushed ambient soundscapes, often sprinkled with Hubley's soft atmospheric vocals, and the latter half rocked with Kaplan's sprawling feedback-driven noise jams. These extremes between dreamy and abrasive shoegaze embraced elements of pop, folk, punk and experimental music was ever eclectic, such that it made sense only in Yo La Tengo's multi-faceted musical world. The evening was capped with the introduction of John Doe of X for the encore; Doe performed a five-song set with Yo La Tengo as his backup band.

Visit Yo La Tengo at www.yolatengo.com.

Setlist:

1. The Evil That Men Do (with Los Straitjackets)
2. Run Run Run (The Velvet Underground cover) (with Los Straitjackets) (instrumental)
3. New Song
4. Green Arrow
5. Today Is the Day
6. Gentle Hour (Snapper cover)
7. Pablo and Andrea
8. The Sea Horse
9. Stupid Things
10. Big Day Coming
11. We're an American Band
12. The Story of Yo La Tango

Encore:

1. The New World (X cover) (with John Doe)
2. My Darling, Blue Skies (John Doe cover) (with John Doe)
3. Pressing On (Bob Dylan cover) (with John Doe)
4. Let's Get Rid of New York (Randoms cover) (with John Doe)
5. Adult Books (X cover) (with John Doe)