Yeasayer/MGMT @ The Bourbon - Feb 1/08

This is the first show I've been to at The Bourbon, and while the door staff were polite and doing the best job they could, I wasn't too impressed with anything else about the venue.
Doors were supposed to open at 8pm for a 9pm show, but with delays for sound checks, we had to stand in the cold with the assembled 20-something hipsters until almost nine o'clock. The boys were shaggy and sensitive-looking, the girls, safe and smart.
It was not a diverse crowd, although I did spot one Mohawk in the crowd later. But this is getting par for the course at Vancouver shows: spot the token "punk".

When MGMT finally took the stage at 9:30pm, the 400-capacity venue made it easy to get close up to the band, but the stage is awkwardly positioned in the middle of the room facing the opposite near wall in a long room. The sight-lines are not great for the entire room, only for the 200 audience members standing between the pillars closest to the stage, or just up the steps at the back third of the room.
MGMT were the reason I wanted to see this show, so I was pretty eager to see how they'd do. They began with their best-known song, "Time To Pretend", which they just performed on Letterman (Jan 8). While MGMT consist of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, their touring band has five members, including a bassist who stuck around out front after to watch Yeasayer's set. Andrew who announced "It's my birthday today. I'm 25", is front and centre on guitar and vocals, and Ben is tucked away behind the keyboards. Another guitarist and drummer round out the touring setup.
It wasn't a spectacular performance and the sound was a little fuzzy, but it was a nice introduction to this young band, and an audience member echoed this feeling with a screamed "thank you for coming to Vancouver". It was a short set, perhaps cut short by the initial delays, and I was a little disappointed not to hear "Kids" or "Boogie Down" off their "Time To Pretend" EP. But they are touring to support their debut full-length album "Oracular Spectacular", and understandably focused on that material.
So many things about this band make me think of Ween, and to be clear, I'm a huge Ween fan. From their videos and artwork, to the intelligent but intentionally unselfconscious lunacy, I was hoping more of that feel would make it into the live show, and it didn't. Opening bands often have to pare down their live presentations to fit into someone else's tour, so when MGMT come through as a headliner, you can be sure I'll be there.

Both bands come from Brooklyn, but in contrast to MGMT, the front-man of Yeasayer, Chris Keating, was much chattier and more personable. The four-member band were squeezed onto the very small Bourbon stage along with two keyboards positioned sideways, one distractingly sitting atop a lumber-jacket style checked blanket, and the drumset behind. Anand Wilder also had a guitar to contend with in front of his keyboard, but they all managed.
Yeasayer began with "Final Path", while not on their new album "All Hour Cymbals", it's a song similar to their well-known "2080" in vision. "2080" itself was another highlight for me, but my favourite moment of the show came from Ira Wolf Tuton, the bass-player, and his vocals on "Sunrise". It was like a Middle-Eastern chant, fast, repetitive and hypnotic. I was utterly transfixed and transported. As their MySpace page says "Enya with balls" indeed!
Chris Keating humourously shared with us that his girlfriend is from Vancouver and she recommended to him a restaurant located in Blood Alley. Even coming from Brooklyn, he said he was amazed to pay $45 for a salad when he had to step over a guy shooting heroin in order to get inside. He added "it was a good salad though". Just before 11:30pm, and before we filed out past pissed-off looking clubbers lined up outside, the lead singer thanked his Vancouver friends once more and Yeasayer gave the cheering room a brief encore.
I wasn't a Yeasayer fan before this show, but as I knew I'd be seeing them, I brushed up on their music, beyond the familiar-to-me "2080". And to be honest, I was a bit wary of how world-music/new-agey they may come off. But, even in such a small, unimpressive live venue, I was impressed by their heart and musicianship, and would consider seeing them somewhere else in the future. Yeasayer make their influences their own with new and unique results, and I will definitely be listening to "All Hour Cymbals" and any new releases as they appear.

Partial Setlist

Yeasayer
Final Path
Sunrise
2080
Wait For the Summer
Wait For the Wintertime

MGMT
Time to Pretend
Weekend Wars
Electric Feel
Pieces of What
The Handshake


Video Clips from February 1, 2008

Yeasayer - "Sunrise"


MGMT 24 Seconds with...