Story & Photos by Catie Keck
The WOW Hall packed in a full house on Sunday night for Urinals and headliner Yo La Tengo, a feedback-fueled three-piece indie rock band from New Jersey. Yo La Tengo released their twelfth album entitled Popular Songs in 2009, in addition to collaborating on a number of side projects including a contributed track on Red Hot’s Dark Was the Night.
The event marked the band’s debut performance in Eugene, Oregon, in over twenty-six years of touring. The band performed two sets, the first of which was decided by an audience member who spun an enormous Yo La Tengo wheel of fortune, a ploy, no doubt, to keep things interesting after a quarter century of playing music together. The hand-built wheel featured such possibilities as “Condo Fucks,” “S Songs,” and “The Sounds of Science,” the latter of which hinted at work from Yo La Tengo’s instrumental score by the same name done for a series of documentaries by Jean Painlevé. After nearly ten minutes of comedy featuring jokes made on behalf of the volunteer spinner, the band’s wheel pin landed on “Dump,” and the show began.
After a brief intermission, the band returned to perform a collection of fan favorites, including a cover of Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones.” “It was really soulful,” an audience member said. “You could tell the crowd enjoyed the grungy breakdown at the end.”
Yo La Tengo closed their second set with a ten-minute ballad met by eager screams of “Give us more!” at the finish. Despite nearly two straight hours of steadfast performing, the band returned yet again, bringing Urinals back on stage for an inter-band on-stage jam session before featuring an acoustic performance fronted by Yo La Tengo drummer Georgia Hubley. After performing a string of rock songs, the band concluded with their cover of “Somebody’s Baby.”

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Yo La Tengo Visits Eugene for First Time