Jamming to a sold-out crowd at the Annex, the Brooklyn/Philadelphia-based Clap Your Hands Say Yeah brought its East Coast indie style to the Midwest Saturday night. The band, known for self-releasing and self-promoting its self-titled debut album, played its heart out to a crowd of enthusiastic revelers.
CYHSY exploded onto the scene in 2005, and the five band members –Alex Ounsworth, Tyler Sargent, Robbie Guertin, Lee Sargent and Sean Greenhalgh — are currently touring to promote their sophomore album, Some Loud Thunder.
Elvis Perkins and Dearland opened with his band, playing their blues-inspired songs for nearly an hour. Starting with a track not yet recorded, Perkins' songs were still, for the most part, unsurprising. The foursome played a safe set on a plethora of instruments, most notably a stand-up base and shoulder-slung bass drum. The musically talented group jammed on a range of instruments from a saxophone to a harmonium — an accordion-type instrument in a wooden box– and filled the Annex with its eclectic sound. The strong beats and Perkins' deep, melodic voice blended with his troubadour-esque soulful lyrics.
After an unusually long break, CYHSY played for a little more than an hour, interspersing jams with songs sounding as if the soundboard had hooked up an iPod and pressed play. Ounsworth's surprisingly impressive guitar skills and the strong drum beats pervading the show successfully helped bring to life the songs most audience members had previously only heard on the band's album.
While the better-known songs off the debut album were crowd pleasers, the band's jams were the highlights of the show. Clap smartly interspersed new and improvisational songs with those the crowd knew and happily sung the words to. The band's uptempo jams with strong, repetitive techno-inspired beats kept the crowd dancing throughout the night. One of the more experimental songs, "Satan Said Dance," entranced the crowd in techno bliss. The new-wave electronic bars and static blips were skillfully mixed in with guitar loops and repetitive lyrics, making for one of the best songs of the night. CYHSY played the obligatory well-known "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood" to an excited, expectant crowd. The upbeat track highlighted Ounsworth's melodic voice and the band's consistent energy throughout the show. The coming-of-age track was also a high note on which to finish when playing for this exuberant college crowd.
Critics have often called CYHSY's sophomore album overhyped and constantly cite the plaid-clad band as unoriginal. Despite similarities drawn between CYHSY and the Talking Heads or the Pixies, the band skillfully adds its own twist to a well-established genre.
Creatively promoting its debut album on the blogosphere and mp3 new media circuit, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah displays its unique outlook on the music scene in more ways than merely on stage.
