Jump ahead to September of 2009. Two albums later, the band has evolved into something a little less rock n roll. I still like their music, but none of it has the raw sexuality and pure rock n roll heart that their first album had. YYYs are set to play The Pearl at The Palms. I guess Nick’s statement about never playing Vegas just didn’t hold true now that they are a bigger act. Phillip and I had never been to this venue in Las Vegas before and tickets were fairly reasonable so despite the fact that we don’t like their new music as much as their old music we decide to go to the show. The Pearl is nice, small, intimate. We don’t have standing room only floor tickets; the floor is really small. We have seats and they are good: dead center, about 10 rows up. Wow. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs sure put on a different show from the last time I saw them! Karen O still moves all over the stage, but not wildly. In fact she is so controlled now that it actually comes off as contrived and rehearsed. The crowd really got excited when she would crash her foot down on a pedal onstage and colored paper confetti would shoot out at them! Really, confetti is exciting? The stage itself was very impressive with a large bullseye that lit up in multiple colors and a huge round eyeball in the center. But it felt to me like YYYs have simply lost their soul. They are cold and controlled and play too many ballads and not enough rock n roll. I miss their dirtiness. I miss their rawness. I was bored. Oh and they played for just over an hour including the encore.
That’s just lame.
Here are a few shots I took at the show. You can’t see the band really, but you can see the eyeball.
