Yeasayer

The Duke Nelson Recreational Center, dubbed the “alien space craft center” by Yeasayer themselves, slowly began to fill with Middlebury students as the shaggy-haired members of DOM filled the air with unintelligible lyrics and fierce guitars. These were the students who chose, for whatever reason, not to attend the Quidditch World Cup — and if I could be so bold, I say they made the right choice.

After DOM effectively warmed up the crowd, both physically and emotionally, students patiently waited for the headliner band, Yeasayer. Once the time came, the experimental rock group from Brooklyn had no hesitation in beginning their set.

From then on, Yeasayer took on the role of puppet master, and the crowd became the band’s playthings. Using their haunting, echoing vocals as puppet strings, Yeasayer both excited and pacified the crowd.

The crowd of students began to move and sway to rhythm of the voice that filled their ears. Backing up the powerful lyrics were a mix of guitars, drums and plenty of electronic ornamentation. This bizarre chemistry set of sounds mixed very well together and created a solution that got into all of our systems.

Behind the band stood a simple yet effective light show that not only added a visual aspect to the music, but also allowed the audience to be completely enveloped in the journey Yeasayer was sending us on. At one point in the show I felt as if I was back with my family in their warm embrace, only to be immediately yanked away by almost alien sounds, and just like that, I found myself in an episode of The X-Files. This journey was there, but what the final destination was, I couldn’t tell you. All I can say is that by the end of the show, I felt as if everything was going to be all right.

“From an MCAB perspective the concert went smoothly,” Hannah Wilson ’11, co-chair of the MCAB Concerts Committee, said. “There were no problems with security or crowd control. The majority of the show-goers were Middlebury students, which is positive. We thought the performance of Yeasayer was new and exciting, something that Middlebury hasn’t seen in three or four years.”

Wilson continued to say that Yeasayer will not be the last of shows of this genre.

“This time we tried to veer away from hip hop,” she said. “Our last three shows were hip-hop and rap and MCAB concerts wanted to diversify the concert scene at Midd. So we’ve been putting on a lot of shows this semester. We averaged at three a month. These range in size from [performances at] 51 Main to Yeasayer, which was our big fall show.”

Yeasayer’s attendance rate was impressive, ranging anywhere from 600 to 750 people. Personally, if MCAB is going to offer more shows of this genre and caliber, you will definitely be able to find me at the ticket booth.