The Stool Pigeon music newspaper

On record, judging by their recent debut single, ‘2080’: soft American seventies rock with a cosmic twist. Live, judging by this gig at Camden Dublin Castle: exactly the same but with added geekiness and more of a world music groove. In other words, on paper, something so horrific you might remember the name to remember never to bother to buy a gig ticket or their forthcoming album, All Hour Cymbals. To top it off, spied resting innocently on the side of the stage as they set up, was a fretless bass. Fretless bass. I almost left.

But this Brooklyn four-piece turned out to be something of a genuine revelation: a band that are so uncool, they just couldn’t get away with trying. Even the way they jigged around whiffed of that guy at school who everyone laughed at when he dropped his awkward moves on the dancefloor. But everyone always realises later that he was the one who had the real style. So it was with Yeasayer: mouths fell open when they started up and then, by the end of song one, the only thing that mattered was how good their inventive rock funk was. Yeasayer are superb musicians and great performers. They weren’t headlining tonight, but it felt like they were: only respect for the band playing after prevented them from answering our calls for an encore.

This was their last show in a quick trip to introduce themselves to London. The mini tour, before this night, had already been a success: reviews had appeared in the national papers; kids were telling kids about them; the single was getting pre-ordered. It lent the night something of a celebratory feel - their tour manger had picked the set-list (“Hey! What are we playing next?”) and the band were having a ball. No pretension, no annoying haircuts: just good proggy songs that sent heads spinning into space. Akron/Family but pop? Something like that.

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