persona non grata

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who can’t remember the last time the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were on Australian shores, that last fateful trip to Oz is still a hot topic for conversation around the world. Not for their signature blistering performances, but for how the world almost lost its indie queen of screams. After an energetic Karen O danced a little too close to the edge of The Metro stage at the band’s first Sydney show of the tour and tumbled head-first into the photo pit, resulting in a near fatal bump on the nogging and cutting the show short, as she made a swift exit to the emergency ward. It was one of those nights that everybody now stakes their indie-cool cred upon, by uttering the highly clichéd “I was there when…”, but for those who actually were in attendance that night, the events that unraveled that night are still as crystal clear in our memories, as if it were just yesterday.

We’d all been waiting with baited breath for the New York trio to return to our shores, after they blitzed and rocked us to the very core, with a handful of JSBX live supports and a frenetic secret Sydney sideshow at The Annandale. Now finally, Karen and her boys were ready to wreak havoc on a thirsty nation all over again, with their own headlining shows on the side of the Livid tour. The night started  off in fine light, as The Bumblebeez opened up with a genre-bending explosion and fellow New York trio The Liars picked up the baton in fine form, exciting us even more about what was to come next. Finally, after dodging the heavy anticipation in the air and picking up our jaws from the ground following The Liars’ performance, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs took the stage and were met by rapturous crowd applause. Karen was dressed head to toe in a strange but gorgeous blood-red creation, that of course only she could manage to pull off. After briefly thanking the local designer responsible, they kicked off proceedings. Things were rip snorting from the get go, as always, as Karen danced, pranced, screamed and shouted across the stage like a miniature out of control angel. Things were really starting to kick off as they started the fifth track of their set, until O started dancing a little too happily on the fine live of the stage’s edge, then…*BUMP*, we all heard it, as the mic took a dive with her, as Nick and Brian played on unaware, just thinking it was another Karen O trick. That was until she missed her next lines and they saw security guards make a mad dash to pick her up off the hard, dirty, beer-drenched floor and propped her back up on stage. Being the eager to please, full of beans front woman that she is, she decided to try and power through with the performance, apologizing to us all for having to sit down and take it a little easier for a subdued version of “Maps”, in which she leaned on a speakerbox and kept her back to the audience – God love her!
It wasn’t until halfway through the track that her boyfriend, The Liars’ Angus Andrews, rushed onto the stage to be by her side and examine her injuries, convincing her to get to the hospital to have the already sizable bump checked out. As the four of them exited the stage after just six songs, the crowd was left in a state of shock and confusion, standing around wondering nervously what was going to happen next, as the realization set in that this wasn’t just a carefully orchestrated stage prank that the band would return from. Then their good friend Har Mar Superstar came out with a brave face, to announce the show’s outcome and fill us in on the seriousness of Ms O’s injuries.
“It’s funny to hear somebody talk about that night,” says drummer Brian Chase as I recall the event. “I mean, to Nick and I, it was all a blur, we didn’t really know what was going on, or how serious it was until after it happened.” Although things for the trio had always been a little out of control on stage, with Karen jumping about, grabbing anything she could to use as a prop, to dance around with dangerously and nonchalantly, things had never quite managed to go that unbelievably wrong before. “Things on tour back then were always pretty crazy and Karen always acted on impulse, like a live wire, but it had never ended with a near-fatal accident before. So after that I think we’ve been a bit more careful and Karen remains a little more composed,” admits Chase of the change in the band’s current state of live antics.

Things for the band have been hectic during the last three years between drinks, as they struggled to juggle touring down to just a trickle of well-placed shows, before taking a break, along with living in separate cities in the US and their increasingly separate lives, to work on their long-awaited follow-up to 2003’s “Fever To Tell.” With unconfirmed rumours in a particular British “rock bible” stating that they took a wrong turn or two along the way and ditched their first attempt at the “difficult follow up record” and started again from scratch, in an effort to move right away from making a “Fever To Tell Pt. 2.” A story that is only partly true according to Chase: “Well, it’s not entirely true. I mean after being on the road for so long we had a whole bunch of songs ready and in the works I guess, if we wanted a quick follow up. But we decided not to do things that way, we wanted to take a break and get ready to take a new and different direction together,” he reveals. “It wasn’t like we went into the studio and made a whole record and then scrapped it,” he laughs of the NME allegation.

“Show Your Bones” is a vast departure from “Fever To Tell”, as the band took one step further into the world of songwriting and song structure, letting the full extent of their artistry shine on the unsuspecting masses. With enough signature O’s gutteral growl popping up on the album to count on just one hand, it’s a far cry from what we expected to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs return with. It exceeds itself with the levels of feeling and maturity in the notes, time signatures and lyrical content, and we realized that Karen’s voice really is an asset to behold, as she holds back on the dangerousness that was possessed on “Fever To Tell”, ditching it for a more heartfelt shade and singing of heartbreak, rather than short and alluring indie rock snaps about dates with the night.
“I think we’re all really impressed by how well we did it,” Chase admits. “I think the track I still feel is something really special is ‘Warrior’ and it’s been going down pretty well live at the latest shows too, so we’re always being amazed by how the new tracks develop and grow in their own time.” Speaking of “Warrior”, I must ask a hankering question about a frog that used to continually haunt me several times a day. That was until I realized that the “ribbett ribbett” was coming from my discman as I listened to that track, which was of course one of my first favourites. My question is met by laughter at the other end of the line, as Brian says, “You’re the first one to ask us this actually, we had a toad in the studio, so that’s why you hear that popping up.” And the timing couldn’t be more on par if it tried, after Karen mentions “the river”.
“Show Your Bones” is out now, be sure to get along to a show when they hit a town near you, it’s guaranteed to be an experience you won’t forget anytime in the near future!

by Semone