Yo La Tengo - Live at Cabaret Metro - 107 min.

Recorded live in Chicago, IL, 11/10/95

Setlist information courtesy of Rob

Big Day Coming
I Heard You Looking
Decora
Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)
Tom Courtenay
The Summer
Don't Say A Word (Hot Chicken #2)
Drug Test
?Attack On Love
False Alarm
Sudden Organ
Blue Line Swinger
Antmusic (Adam and the Ants) [short dropout]
The Evil That Men Do
Somebody's Baby (Jackson Browne)
Tried So Hard
What Can I Say
We're An American Band (Grand Funk)
Prisoners Of Rock 'N' Roll (Neil Young)

Notes

Crisp sound. An early appearance of the "ok girl now let's see what you can do" tape loop before "Flying Lesson". Small dropout at start of "Antmusic". "Tom Courtenay" is the "Camp YLT" version. Xylophonic (!) arrangement of "The Summer", with Mark Greenberg from The Coctails, dedicated to the Bonzo Dog Band...there's a YLT b-side that sounds very much like this version. James introduces Grand Funk's "We're An American Band": "Ira says it's time for the cowbell." 3 encores! Cool trippy ending to "Prisoners of Rock and Roll" closes the show.

Hearing "Attack on Love" made me wonder about some of the lyrics, and I found an interview with James, containing this question:

WHAT WAS THE BEST AND WORST YLT GIG YOU REMEMBER?
Hmm, let's see... I think I have one that qualifies as both best and worst. In early March of 1994 we opened a few shows for the Juliana Hatfield 3. The first night was in Dallas, at some godawful venue, The Lizard Hut or something along those lines. The audience HATED us. In a way I was kind of enjoying the set, and I thought we were playing well. At the quietest moment in the set, I believe between verses of "Nowhere Near," a teenaged (14 at most) girl said, in the sweetest drawl, "Hey man, y'all suck!"

Michael Edmonson (edmonson@sdf.lonestar.org)