[Trash-talk] Yeah Yeah Yeahs & Har Mar Superstar @ the Troubadour (NGR)

[blisteringheat]

Figured this was the last chance ever to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at a club
this intimate. They're coming back at March but playing much larger (1,000
capacity) venues. I'd never seen them before so I wasn't quite sure what to
expect. Damn, what a fantastic experience. Their live sound is a lot more
Velvet Undergound influenced than on their records, with tons of distortion
and rhythmic drumming etc. More than once I thought they were going to
break into Venus In Furs but it didn't happen. Karen O is an absolute trip,
prancing around the stage like a little kid who was just told she was going
out for ice cream. When not doing that, she's writhing around on the ground
seductively with her mic head in her mouth. She was initially wearing a
pale little mini dress covered with a satiny light blue dress. But by the
third song she had ripped the blue dress to shreds, using a portion of it
as a blindfold while she went into Art Star. It's difficult to say how they
sounded, as I was just too close to one of the amps and with all the
distortion and everything it was just a sonic assault on the senses. But
really that just added to the chaotic feel of the show. She took a pretty
nasty spill towards the end of the encore right in front of us, as the
stage was pretty much covered with champagne and beer and she was running
and jumping around. When she came downstairs after the show she told me
that she was ok and that she'd fallen much worse than that on quite a few
occasions, so that's good (?) to know. Haha. A nice thing to see earlier
was when the band arrived Karen O asked a roadie to give her a tour of the
historic club, so he walked her all around and pointed things out to her.
She seemed REALLY excited to be playing there.

Wires On Fire and Har Mar Superstar were the openers. Wires On Fire were
impressive. Very loud, very fast, and very energetic. Har Mar Superstar was
fucking hilarious. I knew of him already but had never gotten to see him.
He's basically a Ron Jeremy look-alike who comes out and sings and dances
to pre-recorded music, some covers and some of his own material. Eventually
by the end of the show he ends up in his Paul Frank briefs, which is not a
pretty sight. At one point he walked out the door with his mic and was
singing on Santa Monica Bl. At the beginning of his set most of the
audience weren't quite sure what to make of him. But about halfway through
he had the place going crazy. Even the upstairs VIP area, in which the
people generally ignore the opening bands, everyone was crammed against the
window to watch him perform. Pretty cool.

*** out of ***

pongo



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when did i get perverted
i can't remember your name
i'm growing introverted
you touch my hand but it's not the same...