Saw the YYYs at the Academy in Birmingham last night.

The overall vibe I had when I left was, well, along the lines of ‘hmmmmm’.

They just didn’t manage to rock my boat.
There were quite a few problems with the gig in general –

It was far too quiet, easily the quietest gig I’ve seen at the Academy.
Their lack of a bass player works fine on the album cos you feel that some production jiggery pokery has beefed up the sound some, but live, it just feels lacking. There’s no punch to the sound. The venue swamped them.

Another huge problem for me was the set list. For a band with one EP (which I don’t have) and one album (which I do have) they played far too many songs I was unfamiliar with. Fair enough, the more hardcore fans in the crowd probably knew most of the songs but to only play maybe 5 tracks off your only album is pretty much heresy in my book!

And finally, Karen O is just a little bit too ‘mad’. It started to grate after a while. Her loony shenanigans didn’t detract from her performance but it got a little dull when she stood gurning like a crazy person for the tenth time of the night. She changed outfit for the encore – a red superhero cape and red hat thingy, but it just felt strained, as if she was trying too hard to be bonkers.

The crowd was never really won over and there were more people chatting than I’ve ever heard at a gig.

All in all a disappointment