Thursday night I saw Yo La Tengo at Maxwell's (they played a show there each night of Hannukah). They were absolutely fantastic. Here is a great run-down of who opened, as well as the set list. Never heard of Wreckless Eric before, but his renditions of "America" and "Hurry Up" were wonderful. Although, I thought the Blondie cover they did was "Sunday Girl." Not sure what "Hurry up" is. Anyway, "Love is in the Air," sung by Ira, was so cute. I was thrilled to hear "Sudden Organ" and "I Heard You Looking," the latter of which seemed to go on forever, much to my delight. These folks are truly one of the best bands going. They occupy their own little musical netherworld somewhere between Pavement and My Bloody Valentine. You don't really expect to hear sonic waves of pedal-heavy guitar from them, but when they do it, they do it perfectly. And their sense of humor is smart and makes them all the more likable. I mean, leave it to YLT to have a comedian open in front of a crowd of dour, too-cool-for-school indie rock kids - and have them all roaring! ( I can't stress enough how hilarious Patton Oswalt was - they place truly was roaring). This is a move akin to their little stunt of putting all the wrong song lengths on Electropura - the bane of every college radio DJ on the planet - but it's their little way of saying "don't take yourselves so seriously." And that's why I love these guys: they are passionate about their music and they just plain-old have fun doing it, which makes for one of the best shows you will ever see.