Yo La Tengo & Friends - Cat's Cradle 2004

Cat’s Cradle

Carrboro, NC

Oct. 10, 2004

audience recording (sound quality VG++; sounds like it was recorded with raised mics; excellent sound, and the crowd noise not obtrusive)

 

This show came shortly after the recording of Chris’ collaborative album with Yo La Tengo called A Question of Temperature / V.O.T.E.  It's a Rock the Vote type gig on YLT’s “Swing State” tour to promote participation in the upcoming national election, and Chris sings and plays on three songs.

Chris, guesting at a Yo La Tengo Hanukkah show, 2007
photos by slowshutter.org

Repercussion: There’s a lot I could write about Chris’ musical connections to Yo La Tengo, but it’s probably best to let him speak for himself. Here’s what he said in a Q & A with Magnet’s Jud Cost in Feb. 2013:

Q: How was it working with Yo La Tengo on your previous solo release? Always loved those guys. Ever play with them live?
 

A: I was actually in Yo La Tengo off and on, as extra guitarist, for a while. And I’ve played with them lots, even in the last decade. They are both kind and fearless, and somehow they have never banned me and my cello from their stage although you’d think… Ira and Georgia have participated, most recently, in the European concerts of the Sister Lovers material, as well. The record with them was somewhat of a busman’s holiday, to be honest; we just set up and played our first instincts, hoping for a few songs for an EP and ending up with “the world’s longest EP” if you look at it one way. It wasn’t one of those kinds of albums where you stop to reflect, it was more gung ho and damn the torpedoes. 
  
READ THE REST OF THE Q & A HERE

DISC 1

101 - Sudden Organ

102 - Beautiful World (Devo)

103 - Decora

104 - Don't Have to Be So Sad

105 - Behind That Locked Door (George Harrison)

106 - Noisy Night^ (Portastatic; half-second hiccup at 0:55)

107 - Gold In Sound+ (David Kilgour)

108 - I Wanna Be Your Lover (Bob Dylan)

109 - Oh Yeah* (Chris Stamey)

110 - Tears Are In Your Eyes

111 - I Hate Hate (Razzy Bailey)

112 - Little Eyes

113 - Seemingly Stranded+ (David Kilgour)

114 - St. Elmo's Fire^ (Brian Eno)

115 - Moby Octopad

TT for Disc One: 1 hr.,15 mins., 51 secs.

DISC 2

201 - Big Day Coming  fast version

202 - Compared to What* (Eugene McDaniels)

203 - You Can Have It All  drum version

204 - I'm Your Puppet (James & Bobby Purify)

205 - Stockholm Syndrome

206 - Late Century Dream^ (Superchunk)

207 – Shivering+ (David Kilgour)

208 - The Summer

209 - Autumn Sweater

210 - Tom Courtenay

211 - I Heard You Looking

212 - Somebody's In Love (Sun Ra)

213 - encore intro

214 - What I Dig* (Sneakers)

215 - Sugarcube

216 - Speeding Motorcycle

TT for Disc Two: 1 hr.,15 mins., 53 secs.

Yo La Tengo: seeing the light, again

MP3@320

Yo La Tengo:

Georgia Hubley – drums, vocals

Ira Kaplan – guitars, vocal

James McNew – bass

Special Guests:

+David Kilgour (The Clean)

^Mac McCaughan (Superchunk, Portastatic)

*Chris Stamey (The dB's, etc.)

Notes: As a live act, YLT seem to dig an extreme loud-to-soft dynamic range, and it’s rather obvious here. I compensated for this pretty successfully, but you may still want to adjust the volume once or twice while enjoying the show. Originally, it was much longer. I edited out a guest a cappella/comedy group and some speech making to get it down to the length of 2 discs, for those who’d like to burn it.

Learn more about the music of Yo La Tengo at Wikipedia, the group's own site and/or at AllMusic