Emily Denaro
Chinese lanterns cluttered the stage of the Annex for the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah show.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah worked the crowd like an exercise video at the Annex last night. Chinese lanterns hand painted like the cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Show Your Bone cluttered the stage, adding to the DIY, lo fi buzz that emanated from the speakers.
The first half of the set was a low key shoegaze style that kept the crowd melancholy and moody. Tom Verlaine's shorter, incomprehensible twin, a.k.a. lead singer Alec Ounsworth, remained calm and collected, yet led the crowd in a fist pumping "Satan Said Dance."
The entire scene changed upon the mid mark of the evening with the popular "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" lifting the post punk roots to the surface. The sea of people in the Annex bounced as one unified orb of baseball caps and vintage t-shirts.
The additions of featured instruments crispy harmonica, a surprise horn section wearing Carnivale masks, plus a drums vs. drum pad percussion fest catalyzed audience members to throw back their heads with eyes closed and mouths grinning.
If the rest of the band was a polite hand clap, then the loudly dressed Robbie Guertin was the "Yeah!" Sean Greenhalgh might have bit at the air while drumming like a mad man, but Guertin, who played the catchy guitar hooks, drum pad and occasional Joy Division sounding keyboard, was far and away the most elated, jazzed body on the stage. What a pleasure for anyone standing on stage right.
All the sub par words about this pint sized band's last tour have certainly kicked them in the ass enough to up the ante, trading the "Yuck!" for "Yeah!"
