Yo La Tengo, Glasgow review: 'diversity is key'

“What a Tuesday night, Glasgow,” enthused Yo La Tengo singer and guitarist Ira Kaplan. “You've got Sleater-Kinney 15 feet away!” Through impressive management of the space in Partick industrial arts complex SWG3, both legendary indie bands were playing separate concerts in adjoining, well-soundproofed rooms. Yet they weren’t the only classic group to be heard before the night was out.

This New Jersey trio – Kaplan, his wife Georgia Hubley and James McNew – played two sets which grouped their music broadly into quiet and loud. The first closed on the lightly shuffling drums and picked guitars of My Heart’s Reflection and the chattering electronic bed of Miles Away over Hubley’s sparse vocal; the second began with the clashing, combative guitar squall of Cherry Chapstick, running straight into This Stupid World.

Despite the omnipresence of guitars and drums, musical and compositional diversity is key to Yo La Tengo’s long career, as demonstrated by a tour through Beanbag Chair’s discordant piano line, the chirping house keys of Moby Octopad and the anxious organ refrain of the self-explanatory Sudden Organ. Later on, beginning with Fallout, a passage of Sonic Youth-style electro-pop brought the gig in to land.

To add to the indie star-heavy flavour at SWG3, grinding guitar instrumental I Heard You Looking saw the trio joined by old friends Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley from Teenage Fanclub, to create a cavernous sound in this hanger-like warehouse. The pair returned during the encore for covers of the Seeds’ Can’t Seem to Make You Mine and the Byrds’ I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better, the latter sung in a beautiful, smokily raw tone by Hubley, maturing the breezy, carefree spirit of the original.

“There you go, two 12-string guitars at one time,” said Kaplan, clearly enjoying this unique iteration of his own gig as much as everyone else. “See if that happens tomorrow night in Glasgow!” There’s no doubt it was an especially exciting Tuesday.