There is a sort of winking complicity involved in such corporate/rock marriages as the Yaris FreeYrRadio shows. It’s not on the scale of betrayal of Woodstock ’99 (unless you have a world view plagued by moral absolutism) but there is a discomfort that, well, just about everyone is aware. Yeasayer gets a pay-day, The Current gets to promote a show with out shelling out for it, Toyota targets the youth demographic and we all go huh, as if rock and roll ever meant anything. At least Ice Cream Man was there handing out free ice cream—because people like ice cream and that is about as pure intentions get.
Intentions and venue notwithstanding, the over 200 people who waited in heat and in line seemed willing to make trade-offs for a free show. And fortunately for them, Yeasayer can put on a great live show (reviewed previously for HowWasTheShow here. And here.) After being introduced by Current DJ Barb Abney, they took the tiny stage, seemingly a bit bewildered themselves by performing in the corner of stacks of faux-vintage shirts. They opened with new songs, working tour material as frontman Chris Keating made jokes about getting your money’s worth for a free concert. If people felt the need to pay something, he said, “Make a check out to Urban Outfitters. Not that they don’t make enough money.”
After a couple new songs, the crowd thinned a bit, perhaps the novelty wore off for some folks there to say they’d been, or curiosity was sated—if I were not a fan of Yeasayer, I don’t know how much longer I would have stayed. They then pulled solid material from last years’ All Hour Cymbals, “2080,” “Sunrise” and others before taking requests for a closer to their ambling, affable set. Someone in the front yelled out “Red Cave” and that is what they played—the song that bassist Ira Wolf Tuton said was the one song he didn’t want to play. It is a great closer though, a build up followed by a quiet harmonizing and a bang of a finish, an ebb and flow that sews a show up nicely.
As folks clapped and shuffled their feet, Yeasayer returned to play the dark dance number “Final Path” as an encore. Tuton sniped that he “loved it when bands have their encore on the set list. Just kidding, we don’t even have a setlist.” At least the band and their music could keep things shambolic and tongue in cheek, a little bit of danceable chaos facing up to the cash registers in the background.
