Yeah Yeah Yeahs

It may seem odd to some that I didn’t hang around for the headline, but I wasn’t the only one, and I didn’t want the experience diluted by a band who are decent enough but have never properly grabbed me.

So I left after the Yeah Yeah Yeahs played one of the gigs of the year so far, signing off in a shower of confetti to a packed 3Arena.

Karen O looks the part, long straight black hair, silver trousers and long, sweeping black jacket and a yellow t-shirt that shouted FEVER in black letters. It promised to be special from the off and so it proved to be.

I’d never seen the Yeah Yeah Yeahs other than on TV before, but I’ve loved their music ever since I discovered the band more than 15 years ago. I reckon Maps - https://youtu.be/oIIxlgcuQRU - is one of the finest love songs. It has power and tenderness at the same time as well as being a damn catchy tune. That’s a clever trick to pull off.

But there are always contrasts with this band. From the slow burn of Porcelain to the all out attack of songs like Gold Lion and Mosquito, there’s brilliant around every corner.

Twists and turns while Karen O makes the stage her own personal fiefdom, bossing the 7,000 audience with a look or a ruffle of her hair and a spray of water high into the air, not caring about the rules of gravity that inevitably mean she’s the one who gets it in the face.

There was always the risk the anticipation was going to exceed the reality. It’s happened before - Kristin Hersh, we’re looking at you.

And this was a high stake having taken a week off work to be in Dublin for this gig. Factor in that I don’t go to many massive arena gigs and there are quite a few tripping points to encounter. Of course I made some of them myself, including that I didn’t need to come at all. But there were only a few Europe dates and, well, hey ...

But none of those trippers materialised. The sound in 3Arena was excellent. I was near enough the front to see what was going on without needing screens at the sides of the stage (there weren’t any) and the atmosphere was just the right side of enthusiastic.

I bought a t-shirt, drank on over-priced beer and ate a hot dog (well that’s what they called it). And the Yeah Yeah Yeahs played for exactly one hour. That’s as it should be. The rendition of Maps was beautiful, had me (kind of) dancing and it’s difficult to see how the gig could have been improved. Not by being any longer, that’s for sure. If you can’t get your point across in an hour then you’ve got issues.

Brilliant. So well worth the effort.