Yo La Tengo

How is it that a band can form in 1984 and still sound as fresh and invigorating two and a half decades later? What's more, Yo La Tengo just keep getting more interesting as time, records and tours pass by. Let's all applaud the news then, shall we, that Yo La Tengo return to Sydney in February — a dreamy alterna-rock chaser to the glut of the summer music season.

No strangers to these shores, in Sydney they've played in-store acoustic gigs, numerous shows at the Metro, Q&A's at the Chauvel, and made truly heavyvibe festival appearances. The manner in which Yo La Tengo perform is about as surprising as their musical tangents, evident across their almost cripplingly extensive back catalogue. This includes pop classics such as Electr-O-Pura, I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, instrumental film scores like The Sounds of the Sounds of Science, Old Joy, and rather mental covers records with the tittering titles Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics and the recent Fuckbook (released under the name Condo Fucks), right up to 2009's excellent Popular Music. They even have a Christmas EP.

This time, on their way to the Perth International Arts Festival, they're playing two separate sets in Sydney. The first is at The Basement on 17 February, the next installment of their ongoing The Freewheelin' Yo La Tengo Tour wherein the audience is invited to request the songs they will play each night and ask questions. The other is at theMetro on 18 February, which is the regular Yo La Tengo show Sydneysiders have come to know and love (if building a whopping big wash of sound, covering Sun Ra and occasional marital bickering on-stage is regular to you).

Truly, I can't recommend a Yo La Tengo live show more. If that doesn't convince you, consider this: it's impossible not to love a band that named one of their first records New Wave Hot Dog, no?