Brooklyn, N.Y., trio Yeasayer more than proved it has the chops to make music that will endure the wrath of time in its tight set at the Ottobar in Baltimore on Thursday night.
Throughout the headliner’s performance — which was something of a homecoming, as two of the members grew up in Baltimore — audience members danced with respectful abandon.
There was an excitement in the air, but there also seemed to be a reverence. The list of attendee offenses was surprisingly small, and the entire room’s collective joy was genuine all night long.
The sold-out venue, which was relatively small for the band’s tour, played host to fans of all ages. Mixed in with the tweens and young adults were middle-aged mothers and older men.
Opening with “The Children” — the lead track off its latest album, this year’s Odd Blood — Yeasayer’s eccentricities were already on full display with the song’s distorted vocals, hypnotic beat and strangely captivating guitar line courtesy of Anand Wilder.
The audience members bobbed their heads with a cult-like devotion. But this show wasn’t about conforming — it was well understood that individual celebration and dance floor boogying would be heavily employed by the band and its fans.
The opener segued into a night focused on the 1980s-style pop songs of Odd Blood, which were flanked by tracks from the album that rocketed them to indie stardom, 2007’s All Hour Cymbals.
In a time when listeners tend to overlook substance for style, Yeasayer is a blessing. The playful pop group writes songs that defy genre trappings while still exhibiting a firm understanding of the essentials of quality songwriting.
The band members demonstrated their rhythmic expertise with songs such as Odd Blood‘s “Rome” and “Mondegreen” and the more tribal-sounding highlights off All Hour Cymbals.
The group, which was joined onstage by two touring musicians, showcased pop perfection with recent hits “Ambling Alp” and “O.N.E.” Both songs have irresistible hooks and choruses that beg to be sung. Anticipation was high for both songs at the start of the night.
“O.N.E.” appeared in the middle of the set as an extended jam, exploiting its unabashed grooviness.
While Yeasayer played it safe in its set-closing performance of “Ambling Alp,” the good will the song channeled from the audience was too righteous to deny. Though lacking much substance, the song’s chorus of “Stick up for yourself, son/ never mind what anybody else done” felt like an anthem for both the downtrodden and the better off.
The short but much-enjoyed encore closed with fan favorite “Sunrise.” And even though that daily occurrence was hours away when Yeasayer ended its show shortly before midnight, the club’s patrons wished the band could hold off daylight with its songs — even if just for a few minutes more.
rhiggins@umdbk.com
