Yeasayer's Chris Keating performed at Ithaca College Friday, May 7, for the school's last day of classes. Photo by Heather Ainsworth
Anand Wilder took turns with Keating on lead vocals, as Yeasayer offered songs that combined Middle Eastern and African song structures and shimmering pop melodies.
Ithaca College showed up Slope Day Friday afternoon as its Board of Concerts welcomed three of the most popular indie rock acts to its campus for its last day of classes. While Cornell kids suffered through Drake and Francis & the Lights, some b-list New York City group, Yeasayer, Man Man and The Antlers – the hottest bands in indie rock performed to 500 students at IC.
The entire event was almost an anti-Slope Day, and Cornell could crib a page from its academic colleague when it plans next year’s fete. IC provided free hot dogs, hamburgers and sodas (the only vegetarian option turned out to be potato salad), as well as multiple bouncy houses. The overall vibe was a safe and celebratory environment, and if the afternoon lacked binge drinking or vomit, no one seemed to miss it. Even the headlining band seemed to get into the act: “Have a safe day and be careful,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating warned, while his bandmate concluded with the parting words,”congratulations on another school year done!”
Photos by Heather Ainsworth.
Anand Wilder, of Yeasayer. Photo by Heather Ainsworth
Photo by Heather Ainsworth
Photo by Heather Ainsworth
Photo by Heather Ainsworth
Photo by Heather Ainsworth
Like Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear (and for that matter, many other Brooklyn-based bands influenced by Brian Eno and Talking Heads), Yeasayer performed songs that shamble and shimmer more than they rock. Songs like “Sunrise,” the group’s first single, and its most recent work on its sophomore album Odd Blood, combine world music rhythms and Western pop structures, add a dash of New Wave 80s synth-heaviness, and emerge with a sound that can be occasionally annoying but undeniably catchy.
Ithaca College students took to it as if in a trance, pulsing and swaying, clapping along and dancing together for the entirety of the group’s 70 minute set.
Photo by Heather Ainsworth
A brief protest of Arizona's recent immigration law punctuates a mostly music-based afternoon.
Compared to the afternoon’s headliners, and earlier acts Antlers and Zgress and Snack Attack, Man Man was a circus act. Lead singer Honus Honus (not his given name) spent more time shrieking than singing, and he performed without pants and in face paint. His band mates were similarly outfitted (they did don pants), but the music seemed secondary to a performance that elicited a pretty positive response in the crowd.
Man Man's Honus Honus gives Ithaca College all he's got. Photo by Heather Ainsworth
Photo by Heather Ainsworth
