“We are explicitly uninterested in repeating ourselves.” — Ira Kaplan
Clock over two decades as a band, and the pull to calcify can turn positively black hole-like. But if any long-running rock act might claim immunity from staleness, it’d be Hoboken’s ageless wunderkinds Yo La Tengo. Over the course of 14 full-lengths, buckets of singles and EPs, several film scores and thousands of concerts, Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan and James McNew have made an art form of not self-repeating.
Yet their evolutions never seem forced, their fundamental Yo La Tengo-ness intact throughout. Equally crucial, they’re capable of delivering the goods, turning in one of their best records with last year’s genre-hopping I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass. Stardom remains elusive, but has never been part of the equation anyway. Critical success — and there’s been plenty of that, not that they ever seem to give a shit — has been the organic by-product of top-shelf song-smithery and following their muse wherever the hell it led.
“One of the challenges that a band that’s been around as long as we have faces is fighting the perception that you already know what they’re going to do,” says guitarist Ira Kaplan. “You have to answer the question: ‘Why do I need a tenth record by this group instead of a first record by another group? Why do I need to go see this band for a tenth time instead of another group for the first time?'”
So then, the Freewheelin’ tour. After kicking around a few different ideas with their label Matador, they settled on a format that’s equal parts Unplugged, town hall meeting, improv comedy and Fakebook jukebox sampler. The shows feature the trio delivering mostly acoustic versions of songs from their 23-year-deep catalog, choice covers plucked from absolutely anywhere in the rock canon, and on-your-toes between-song banter that even two decades of performing can’t prepare you for.
Already known for mixing up their set list and covers every night, Kaplan says the appeal of these shows is that no two have been remotely the same. Not surprisingly, the audience variable minimizes the rehearsed Storyteller’s tendencies. It also adds the type of unpredictability that’s informed the band’s DNA from the get-go, most tangible musically in Kaplan’s no-net, tight wire-act feedback flights.
“Certainly James and Georgia have said things that if it were left to me I wouldn’t talk about, and since I do more talking than the two of them put together, I’m sure I say things they’d rather I wouldn’t talk about,” Kaplan says. “But the feeling of giving up control is very exciting, and that’s one of the appeals.”
So far, this format’s interaction just confirms how grounded Yo La Tengo remains. After all, they still rock the menorah (for charity) each year during their “8 Nights of Hanukkah” shows; still gamely essay any cover song request during their live in-studio appearances at WFMU’s annual fundraiser (chronicled on 2006’s Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics); still play weddings (not yours, though, so don’t ask); and still prefer talking about their favorite music rather than the nuts-and-bolts or deeper meanings of their own.
In other words, no Cocksucker Blues groupie anecdotes or Behind the Music tales of excess. Based on prior Freewheelin’ stops, you’re more likely to hear about their dismay over the Mets’ big fold last September, their favorite Simpsons‘ episode (Answer: the one with them in it) or the utter futility of crying out for that cover of “Freebird.” (Caveat — they won’t play any old cover hollered at them; this ain’t WFMU.)
The shows have been a hit with previous audiences judging by the level of laughter and intriguingly altered song formats, but Kaplan says they’ve learned a little about themselves, as well.
“One of the things the three of us have in common is that if we went to a show like this, we’d all be very unlikely to ask a question because we’re kind of reserved people,” says Kaplan. “Part of the reason that these shows are appealing is finding that part of your personality that’s good at this and overcoming the part that makes it difficult.
“It’s not a test. We’re not being graded on the quality or accuracy of the answers — or the questions.”
The Freewheelin’ Yo La Tengo tour stops at the Visulite on Friday, Jan. 11, at 10 p.m. Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner opens. Tickets are $20/$22.
This article appears in Jan 9-15, 2008.
