WHY? live at Wadsworth Atheneum. Hartford CT - 12.16.11
I’ve been waiting almost four years to see the band WHY? perform live, and last night I finally got my chance. I first started listening to the indie hip-hop group in 2009, almost immediately after WHY? played their last full-band show in Connecticut, and got hooked really quickly on their nearly indescribable mix of psychedelic folk, indie pop, and abstract hip-hop. The fact that I missed their show without even knowing about it frustrated me to no end for years afterwards, but thanks to Mark Nussbaum and the kind folks who run the local show-booking agency Manic Productions, my frustrations were at last alleviated.
For the band, however, getting back to Connecticut in one piece was not so easy. Last night’s show was originally scheduled for September, as part of a full Northeast tour that also included stops in Boston and New York City, but when frontman Yoni Wolf broke his hand, WHY? was forced to cancel all remaining dates. Thankfully, the Connecticut date was rescheduled, and the band made it to Hartford last night in spite of any setbacks.
The Wadsworth Atheneum is a venue unlike any other that I’ve been to, as far as indie rock shows go. Located in downtown Hartford, the art museum opened its doors to Manic Productions earlier in the year, and has since hosted many shows in the Atheneum, a seated theater with about a 250 person capacity. With its classy atmosphere, padded seats, and bizarre wall paintings, the Atheneum provided the perfect mix of comfortable and hip atmosphere for the attendees of the WHY? show.
WHY?’s experimental rapper tourmate Serengeti opened the show, rapping with instrumental assistance from WHY?’s multi-instrumentalist Doug McDiarmid, who played the grand piano that had been set up onstage earlier. I had never listened to him before, but after witnessing hit set, I knew that I would need to check him out. Over crisp drum machine beats and smooth piano chords, Serengeti rapped with conviction and impressive skill, spitting out word-heavy verses one after another about self-discovery and personal reinvention. His flow recalled the work of certain poetic rappers such as Astronautalis, whose folk-influenced beat poetry definitely runs parallel to both Serengeti and WHY? More than anything else, Serengeti won me over with his sense of himor, which he incorporated into his lyrics as well as his onstage demeanor. He danced around awkwardly onstage and played “free jazz solos” with a cheap recorder that he claimed to have bought the day before, and spat ironic, self-deprecating lines through the voices of an assortment of bizarre characters (his UFC referee voice was the best, although his Hollywood phony voice came close). Afterwards, I promptly bought a vinyl copy of Terradactyl, his collaborative record with Polyphonic, and downloaded his 2011 Anticon debut Family & Friends, from which I later found he culled most of the songs on his setlist. I now recommend both albums.
After he left the stage, we had to wait around for quite a while until WHY? showed up, but no one seemed to mind. There was actually something really nice about actually sitting in the Atheneum in between the sets, chatting to the people sitting around me and comfortably hanging out. The vibe was so relaxed and everyone seemed to be having a great time. This mood extended well past the intermission and remained throughout WHY?’s headlining set, which began around 9:15. As the band took the stage, Yoni Wolf was dressed in a peculiar getup comprising sweatpants, purple topsiders, and a sweater/dress shirt combination that made him look like a cross between a guy at the gym and Mister Rogers. But before anyone could comment on his choice of dress, the band launched into their opening song, a version of “These Few Presidents” from their 2008 breakthrough LP Alopecia. Although I love the song, I was initially hesitant about the performance, as it seemed a little hurried and uncomfortable. They pulled it together by the end though, and played at a high level of poise and grace for the entirety of the rest of their set.
After “These Few Presidents”, the band played right on through to the next song, an unreleased folk pop song with lyrics about strawberries and a memorably melodic chorus. As Yoni’s older brother Josiah explained immediately afterward, most of the setlist was composed of new songs that will appear on the band’s new record. Speaking to me after the show while manning the merch table, he clarified that all of the recording has been completed, and that the record should be out in 2012. This got me really excited, because the new songs that they performed at the show last night sounded amazing. I was worried that after the moody, rather mediocre Eskimo Snow from 2009, WHY? wouldn’t be able to produce another great record, but if the new songs from last night are any indication, the new album should be excellent. While Eskimo Snow saw the band largely abandoning any hip-hop influence whatsoever, the new songs marked a return to the hip-hop aesthetic while retaining the best aspects of the pop sound that they have hewn over their past three releases. These songs simultaneously sounded more pop and more hip-hop than anything the band has produced thus far. Yoni was rapping a lot throughout the night, dropping hard-hitting verses about aging and other topics conveyed through his uniquely abstract lyrical lens. Interestingly, he was singing just as much, delivering catchy and memorable choruses in between hard-hitting raps. One particular chorus stood out, as Yoni repeatedly sang in an off-beat manner, “Good god, what the hell, what the fuck? A white dove on a two ton truck.”
Although the show was billed as a stripped down, unplugged event, the band did an impressive job of replicating their in-studio sound with their primarily acoustic instrumentation. The official trio of McDiarmid and the Wolf brothers was assisted by Liz Hodson, who has been touring with Josiah Wolf for the past year. McDiarmid and Hodson traded off instruments throughout the set, playing grand piano, percussion, guitar, and bass between the two of them while also singing harmonies and whistling. The older Wolf brother deserves tremendous credit for his instrumental multi-tasking abilities, as he not only traded off instruments throughout the set, but actually played multiple things at the same time. For most of the set, Josiah Wolf played a kick drum, snare, and high hat with his hands and feet while playing bass simultaneously. In the midst of this, Yoni Wolf stood in the center, dancing and gesticulating to the beat of each song like a madman.
This convergence of personalities onstage made for some particularly hilarious stage banter as well. In one instance, Yoni told the audience a story about how at a previous show his brother had been attempting to buy something on eBay on his phone during the band’s set, saying that “There’s a time and a place for that, but not onstage, during the show.” Josiah replied that it was a really good deal, and said that Yoni’s point was “debatable.” “You know what?” Yoni said, “Slavery was debatable.”
But in spite of all the joking around, the band consistently managed to deliver great, tight, and serious performances. Although much of the night’s material was new, they did play quite a few selections from Alopecia, my favorite WHY? record, as well as some of the best songs from Eskimo Snow. Highlights from the set included “The Hollows”, which Yoni introduced by saying that “You might have heard it on Sirius XM” and asserted that “It charted!”, in addition to “The Vowels Pt. 2”, “Brook & Waxing” and Eskimo Snow’s “January Twenty Something.” The band left the stage after closing with another new song, but returned to the sustained applause of the nearly capacity-level audience. They picked fantastic encore songs, doing “One Rose”, my favorite song from Eskimo Snow, and finally closing with the classic Alopecia track “By Torpedo Or Crohn’s,” which Yoni invited the entire crowd to sing along to. It was a moving moment of communality in a night full of sustained audience participation, and one that I won’t soon forget. If this ends up being the last show I see in 2011, it will be a great one to remember the year by.
9/10
