Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ the Khyber

I was so glad a few weeks ago when they announced the Sunday night show. I bought tickets to Saturday’s show but couldn’t make it. Jeanne went without me and said the show was fun, but a little short since CYHSY filled the opening slot.

I got to the Khyber about 8:00PM and listened to Clap Your Hands do a half hour soundcheck. They played a little bit of Heavy Metal, which was probably the only time they’ve ever played it in Philly. I mostly hung out with Dan, a bartender from the Dark Horse and his friend Tammy.

The first band up was the trippy, jazzish, Aquilla Rose, which sounds like the name of a character from a bad Star Wars novel (it turned out to be the name of one of Ben Franklin’s friends). They weren’t too bad and I think they could have been a lot better if their singer sang more. Once and a while she played a little keyboard that you blow into. Does anyone know what that’s called?

Aquila Rose

The second band blew me away. I think Audible should always spell their name in parenthesis so it looks like when you call an audible in Madden, although they certainly don’t need my help coming up with ideas. Their band shirts had the band’s name in Morse Code. Audible is a five piece with three guys and two girls. Their songs were really great and everyone around me was impressed. Check out their myspace site for songs.

Audible

As soon as Audible finished, people started cramming into the stage area. Clap Your Hands hit the stage and started off with one of the three unreleased songs they play before going into Let the Cool Godess Rust Away. They played every song from their album except Heavy Metal and their encore consisted of Details of the War and Upon this Tidal Wave of Youngblood. Among the unreleased songs, I love Satan Said Dance and Some Loud Thunder (hear a rough version on Alec’s myspace site. If anyone has a decent live MP3 of Satan Said Dance, let me know!

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Check out the rest of the pics I took here.

Towards the end of their set, Alec mentioned they’re playing again in Philly next month at the TLA for a NOLA benefit on October 26th! Something seems familar to me about that date…

Overall, the Sunday Khyber show where they headlined kicked ass and that’s how their current tour should be, but it won’t. Most of their dates are in support of The National and will probably end up like this (via irockiroll)

I’ve see tons of shows in my life but I never saw what happened last night at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton. I actually got to witness what happens when a band gets caught in the wake of another band’s success.

The show was billed as “The National with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah opening for them”. However, with the steamroller success of CYHSY, it wound up being “CYHSY with The National closing for them”.

I know CYHSY are very hot right now but The National has a damn good album out which I was excited to hear live. But I was in the strict minority. About 3/4 of the crowd emptied out of the place taking with them all of the juice out of the atmosphere.

Well, it came to the end of the set and as the band left the stage, Berninger left the stage, went out the door and just kept going. Finally, one of the guitarists went to look for him. A minute later the guitarist returned empty-handed saying, “I checked out on the street but I didn’t see him anywhere”. This was followed by more uneasy moments as the band tried to figure out what to do.

That’s a sad freaking situation. Phillyist pre-emptively called it the “Let’s Make The National Feel Like Shit” tour and anyone who was at the FUC show a few weeks ago shouldn’t be surprised. At least the guy had one amusing anecdote from the show:

I got down there shortly before showtime and headed straight to the bathroom after the 2-hour drive. The bathroom situation at the Iron Horse sucks.

Well, as I got towards the front of the line, CYHSY’s Alec Ounsworth comes sheepishly up to the front of the line and says “Uh, I have to play upstairs soon. Do you mind if I cut in line. I don’t know what else to do.” Of course, everyone lets him go to the front and do his business. On the way out, I asked Alec if he was starting right away and if I’d have time to make it to the bathroom. He stared at me for a moment, laughed and said, “I’ll wait for you. We won’t start until your upstairs.” It was kind of funny and true to his word, I didn’t miss a single note of the show.

If you’re not a CYHSY fan yet, check these songs out.

This Home on Ice
Upon this Tidal Wave of Young Blood
Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)

Update: 700 club has a review of Saturday night’s show.

Update: callmemickey also has a quick review of the Sunday show.

Update: The BM Rant has a review of the Sunday show and some great photos.

Update: Get tickets for that Katrina benefit show on the 26th of October. It’s at the TLA.