With 24 hours or less before the apocalyptic ice-and-snow emergency descends upon Georgia ending life as we know it according to the local news reports, the London band Yuck played a Monday-night set at The Earl. I have other obligations on Monday nights and don't usually get out to hear music on Mondays, and by the time I got to The Earl last night I had missed opener Pls Pls, but I did get there in time to hear Toronto's Alvvays warm up the audience.
Alvvays play "wistful, jangly, Brit-tinged indie-pop" (Brooklyn Vegan) and is the new band fronted by former solo artist Molly Rankin. They're fun to listen and bob your head along to, and provided a good start for the evening. Bonus points to the band for stringing Christmas lights all over the stage to give their set a literal warm glow.
Yuck took the stage at about 11:15 and played a flawless set of their catchy lo-fi, shoegaze music. Less than 60 seconds into their first song, I knew that I had made the right decision in going out on a Monday, even with the dreaded Snowpocalypse threatening to descend upon us.
Yuck are an easy band to love, and I'm surprised they're not filling larger venues like Terminal West or Variety Playhouse instead of The Earl. Frontman and singer/guitarist Max Bloom sounded great, and drummer Jonny Rogoff, he of the enviable afro, wore a hilarious Diarrhea Planet t-shirt and had altered the "Ludwig" on his bass drum to "Hedwig" using what appeared to be duct tape.
Bassist Mariko Doi remained hidden in plain sight behind her long bangs the entire set, and new guitarist Ed Hayes sounded just fine.
They played Rebirth at about the middle of their set, and closed with the incendiary Operation.
They played a two-song encore, fittingly ending the night with Georgia, Bloom seemingly genuinely surprised when someone in the audience reminded him that he was actually in Georgia.
So now it's the next day and the State of Georgia (the song's actually about a girl named "Georgia") is anxiously awaiting its forecast demise by ice and snow. President Obama has already declared a federal state of emergency even before the first snowflake has fallen and while temperatures are still in the upper 30s, but if I'm destined to freeze to death over the next few days, at least I'll be dong it with some great songs still echoing in my head.
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