A great big Thank You from Las Vegas to Coachella for expanding to cover two weekends Cosmopolitan, House of Blues, The Joint, and the Hard Rock Cafe should be commended for taking advantage of so many great bands stuck in the area for the week by combining to host 10 straight days of No-Chella shows featuring these bands. Just like being at a music festival, fans in Vegas are forced to make some difficult decisions between bands playing in the same time slot. Last night that decision was between Foals and The Neighbourhood at House of Blues vs. Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Boulevard Pool at Cosmopolitan. Despite my current obsession with Foals and their new album Holy Fire, I opted for Yeah Yeah Yeahs after watching the somewhat boring Foals performance at Coachella streamed live on YouTube. I was not disappointed with that decision. The nearly packed house was treated to an energetic set that included all of their hit songs as well as new cuts off of their upcoming fourth album, Mosquito, due out 4/16/2013. A sign of a great performance is when even the side stage ultra-VIP area is shaking from all of the dancing and bouncing and singing along. One thing I definitely learned is that lead singer Karen O is crazy. I mean that in the most complimentary eccentric rock star lead singer way possible. From her bright red, bedazzled, tassled outfit to her various scarves, head coverings and miner’s headband spotlight to her yoga-like twisting and bending ending up on the floor dance moves topped off with her mic jammed into her cleavage before being deep throated to get the most out of her guttaral screams (deep breath taken). If that over the top run-on sentence description isn’t enough to make you fall in love then you are not a true rock n roll fan. A random stranger asked on the way into the show if I was a big Yeah Yeah Yeahs fan. My response was that I liked them and knew some songs but wouldn’t consider myself a “big fan”. I would like to retract that answer and now say that I am a Huge fan and am already anxiously awaiting their next Vegas appearance which I hope Karen O will once again proclaim “Best. Vegas. Show. Ever!”
The first single off the upcoming Yeah Yeah Yeahs album Mosquito
The System of Sound 