tUnE-yArDs – London Cargo
tUnE-yArDs
February 15, 2009
I’ve drafted this tUnE-yArDs review about 12 times today, yet each time, I fail to eloquently express just how this performance set the bar higher than anything I’ve seen before. It’s thankful then that a video exists of the song that closed the night. It’s a new one, called ‘You Yes You’.
I can, however, list a few things about Merrill Garbus, just before you watch the video below from Cargo, and inevitably get obsessed. Good job, that because:
- The extroversion of her performance is contrasted with an indelible introversion, a charm and charisma merited by so much more than just turning up
- She possesses the vocal range of a Mariah, I’ll bet – listen to her roar on ‘Fiya’
- The rhythmic variation in the vocals and drums are a whistle-stop genre-education
- She is THE consummate stage-person – humbled, commanding, truly appreciative, vocal, enraptured by her own performance and openly proud when she hits it right (every time – literally without fail)
- People absolutely love her
- The new material is sounding phenomenal
- Even though the internet hasn’t gone apeshit for her yet, a sold-out Cargo tonight would marry her in a click
- There’s still only ukulele, bass, vocals and drums in the mix
- If this publication gave star ratings, this would rate at ‘infinity’
- Talent-fetishists not at Cargo tonight should be ashamed of themselves
- Merrill Garbus is very happy to be here
- Originality isn’t dead
- This show has the ability to sap the life out of most attempts at performance, ever
- It’s going to take something unimaginable for me to see anything this amazing in my life again
Something that requires a bit more than a bullet point is the fact that ‘Sunlight’ is played only on request in the encore, as Garbus is embarrassed that she can’t play it. Which is, quite frankly, barking-mad.
And something else: the way she plays out the stop-start nature of her songs is an absolute marvel. Before each new cataclysm, crowd-whoops are on-cue. Not only is each song immense in its arrangement and composition, but its performance is attacked with such panache. On this form, tUnE-yArDs is unmissable.
Here’s that video of ‘You Yes You’, the closing track of the night. Listen to the whoops, realise the importance of the exclamation mark here! Here!
Setlist
‘Bizness’
‘Powa’
‘Fiya’
‘Gangsta’
‘Real Live Flesh’
‘Hatari’
‘Party Can’
‘Jumping Jack’
- Encore -
‘Sunlight’
‘You Yes You’
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