{"id":105452,"date":"2025-07-30T18:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/105452\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T18:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:13:13","slug":"band-performs-at-beacon-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/105452\/","title":{"rendered":"Band Performs at Beacon Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSo much of the appeal of early Yeah Yeah Yeahs<\/a> is the thrash of the music. Song after song, the art-punk band found a way to convert a maelstrom of pent-up energy into no-fucks-given liberation that soundtracked a generation of teen rebellions in the aughts. The freedom to let go was fueled, in part, by the kinetic powers of frontwoman Karen O, described<\/a> once for her \u201creckless, whirling-dervish stage demeanor.\u201d Her form of release was to rasp and howl as loud as she wanted, and she invited anyone listening to find catharsis by belting out some wild screams by her side. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd yet at the core of it all, slightly costumed up in the brash spirit of the band\u2019s younger days, their discography is one with a softer pulse, with songs subtly constructed from a quiet sentimentality and a deft poetry in the lyrics. Maybe that\u2019s why the Yeah Yeah Yeahs\u2019 current Hidden in Pieces Tour<\/a> feels so special; it\u2019s a bare-naked revelation of the intimacy and emotion that has always been there.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a three-night run at the Beacon Theatre, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs brought the tour to New York City, where they first formed back in the 2000s. But in a departure from their days barrel-rolling into crowds at basement shows, this tour is a quieter one: The setlist, which includes some songs that are almost two decades old, is full of elegant reinventions of their music, and it emphasizes (as Karen O has said repeatedly) that \u201cthere\u2019s nothing more punk rock than vulnerability.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat meant the audience stared, entranced, at a stage filled with string musicians and an upright bass player, with drummer Brian Chase in the back and guitarist Nick Zinner mostly playing acoustic instruments. Karen took her place at the center in a twinkling robe, kicking off the set with a dreamy reimagining of the more recent cut \u201cBlacktop,\u201d from 2022\u2019s Cool It Down<\/a>. A little later, a cover of Bjork\u2019s \u201cHyperballad\u201d (a song Karen and Zinner used to play back in the day) was just as spellbinding as everyone watched, full of reverence, in pin-drop silence from the venue\u2019s gilded aisles.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEdwina Hay*<\/p>\n

\n\tThe performance was designed to remind us that we\u2019re made of flesh and blood and lots of feelings, so no one was unmoved: Everyone leaped to their feet when an ornate version of \u201cGold Lion\u201d started, and they shouted the lyrics to \u201cCheated Hearts\u201d in unison. (\u201cWell, sometimes I think that I\u2019m bigger than the sound.\u201d) They kept singing together, louder and louder, as Karen launched into a stripped-back version of \u201cMaps\u201d<\/a> that built slowly. \u201cY Control\u201d got people to rage a little before the encore, and then the band came back for an ecstatic version of \u201cZero,\u201d tossing eye-shaped beach balls into the audience.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tThroughout the show, Karen called on people to keep their hearts open, even in \u201cfucked-up times.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s punk rock to be loved,\u201d she declared at one point. For as much as this tour offers another sonic side of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, that emphasis on sincerity and intimacy isn\u2019t so different from what\u2019s always been in their DNA. Simply, they\u2019ve urged us to slow down, take it in, feel a little more. We\u2019re probably achier and more wrinkled 20-plus years later (hopefully a little wiser and more mature, too), but the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are still encouraging us to let it all out.<\/p>\n

\n\tSet List<\/strong>
\u201cBlacktop \u201c(\u201cIn Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)\u201d Intro)
\u201cMiles Away\u201d
\u201cGold Lion\u201d
\u201cHyperballad\u201d (Bj\u00f6rk Cover)
\u201cCheated Hearts\u201d
\u201cIsis\u201d
\u201cWarrior\u201d
\u201cRunaway\u201d
\u201cSkeletons\u201d
\u201cSpitting Off the Edge of the World\u201d
\u201cMaps\u201d
\u201cTurn Into\u201d
\u201cY Control\u201d
Encore:
\u201cZero\u201d
\u201cParanoid\u201d (Black Sabbath cover) (Dedicated to Ozzy Osbourne)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So much of the appeal of early Yeah Yeah Yeahs is the thrash of the music. Song after…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":105453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,975,67,132,68,25736],"class_list":{"0":"post-105452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-yeah-yeah-yeahs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114943544769807701","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}