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Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Live In Concert: SXSW 2013

Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O pulls off one of the trickiest maneuvers in rock 'n' roll: the ability to appear utterly bonkers on stage while remaining in control of every chaotic outburst. The woman knows how to make an entrance, too: She emerged on stage at Stubb's in Austin — for the band's sole appearance at SXSW 2013 — clad in canary yellow, sporting a sparkly fez, giant eyeglasses, and a glittering scarf.

Mixing classics from throughout the Yeah Yeah Yeahs catalog with never-before-played morsels from the forthcoming Mosquito, the New York band cleared plenty of space for its singer, and she didn't disappoint. The result was art-rock where each side of the equation actually complemented the other: Yeah Yeah Yeahs' strangeness unfolds in pursuit of something blistering and primal, but there's also room for songs that wander quietly through meandering interludes and dark alleys. It's rock 'n' roll that rocks fiercely — and, on songs like the anthemic ballad "Maps," with genuine emotion — but it never loses sight of its own boundless capacity to surprise.

Set List

  • "Mosquito"
  • "Cold Light"
  • "Under the Earth"*
  • "Art Star"
  • "Gold Lion"*
  • "Zero"
  • "Subway"*
  • "Maps"
  • "Sacrilege"*
  • "Cheated Hearts"
  • "Miles Away"
  • "Heads Will Roll"*
  • *Included in the audio/video presentation above.

    Credits

    Producers: Mito Habe-Evans, Robin Hilton, Amy Schriefer; Technical Director: Kevin Wait; Event Coordinator: Saidah Blount; Assistant Producer: Denise DeBelius; Videographers: Christopher Farber, Katie Hayes Luke, A.J. Wilhelm; Audio Engineering by Metro Mobile; Production Assistants: Gabriella Garcia-Pardo, Ryan Smith; Special Thanks to: Stubb's and South By Southwest; Executive Producers: Anya Grundmann, Keith Jenkins.

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)