• Blush Photo

At least two problems with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' just concluding set (as I was walking out of Memorial Stadium, Karen O was dedicating a "love song to Seattle"): 1. It was at 2:30 in the damn afternoon when the band clearly should have been blowing out an evening headlining set, as they did to great effect at Sasquatch. 2. At least from where I was standing (midway back to the left), Nick Zinner's guitar sounded like ass, all muddled and way too quiet and totally hollowed out in the middle range. It might have been the high winds, it might have just been where I was standing, but it sounded pretty bad. And when your band is at its core a drums-guitar-vocals trio, you really need that guitar to just slay.

Still, the band were doing everything just right, putting their all into it, like the pros they are. Karen O came out in a metallic, multi-chromatic robe and during the first song wilted down to the ground then sprang back to life dramatically, with plenty of flourishes of the cape (she is a master of wardrobe). When she removed her robe to great cheers she was wearing some kind of weird, green bodysuit underneath (more photos coming soon). Later, while singing the "take it off" chorus of "Cheated Hearts," Karen O paused to remove some kind of cowl, which maneuver caused her to miss a line or two, which made her break out laughing on the mic a bit, a nice crack in the otherwise totally in-control rock star facade.

It was a pretty slow-building set, never really hitting a peak until seven songs in, when the band played "Zero." It was the first song where the sound really felt dialed in right (notably, it was the first song they played that depended almost entirely on synths rather than guitar), with its tense, bass-rich synth arpeggio. Karen O came out wearing the leather jacket with "KO" on the back from the music video, and she kicked the song off by cheering, "party time, excellent, Seattle!" Which I guess makes Brian Chase her (with you as always) Garth Algar. As the song hit its climatic chorus, confetti shot out over the crowd, and a stagehand rolled a pair of giant, inflated eyeballs (matching the one floating behind Chase's drum kit) out over the crowd, which spent hte rest of the set bouncing them around like enormous beach balls (I hear three members of the Residents had to be killed to make those props). "Here's a real old one," she said, introducing "Miles Away."

Chase's drums sounded fine, low and booming and big, but Karen O's voice occasionally sounded kind of worn and pushed, going gravelly and growly like she was really pressing it at times. The thin guitar never really improved, although song with more synth or piano tended to sound fine. Just as the band seemed starting to lose steam and the rain came back, they launched into the epic dance-floor killer "Heads Will Roll." It should've just buried the crowd in its descending chorus, but again it just sounded kind of anemic, especially compared to that Sasquatch set. Next was "Y-Control," kicked off with an extended, mellowed out intro to make the beat drop that much harder. Leaving Memorial Stadium, the guitar sounded a little better on the right hand side, closer to the stage, but it really should have been dialed in to destroy the cheap seats. Last thing I heard was Karen O dedicating a new "love song to Seattle"; I hope for Seattle's sake it was a synth number. (And too bad those rumors about a secret show tonight aren't true...)