By: Shelby Monita (@shelbymonita) –
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)
Toronto’s Lee’s Palace in Toronto hosted Brooklyn based indie heroes Clap Your Hands Say Yeah last night, who have since pared down from a quartet to a duo last year.
The night began with the Providence, Rhode Island-based band Arc Iris, a five-piece keyboards, trumpet and drum ensemble. All members were dressed in white, with the two women vocalists wearing boas and fake tails hanging from their dresses. It was confusing if this was an attempt to look like a whimsical fairy tale, or a gimmick to stand out from the other millions of indie rock bands with a similar sound. When one of the female singers didn’t have any lines, she would resort to dancing either in ballet form or imitating a bird, this could of been a homage to Bjork, if it didn’t seem so forced. Overall the harmonies were nice, though at times it was easy to forget a band was even performing.
When indie rockers Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who have since become a duo consisting of lead singer Alec Ounsworth and drummer Sean Greenhalgh, took the stage, it took a minute for the audience to acknowledge that the band they came to see were starting their set. They mostly stuck to performing songs their highly acclaimed 2005 self-titled debut album, like “The Skin from my Yellow Country Teeth”, “Is this Love?” and “Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)”, and it was obvious that this was what the crowd was eager to hear. Anyone who is familiar with this album would remember the mumbled lyrics on every song that were still difficult to understand last night, though still, that didn’t stop hardcore fans from attempting to sing along.
The highlight of the night was their dark electronic cover of Nirvana’s “Come as You Are”, with Ounsworth squatting on the stage for the entire song in his Bad Brains shirt and suspenders hanging down in true punk fashion.
Ounsworth also took several strolls out into the crowd, making it known several times his love for Toronto, pointing out what a musical city it is and stating, “you have no idea how good you have it.” As they wrapped up their set, they finished their performance with the brash-sounding “Heavy Metal” and the ballad-like “Details of the War”.
Overall it was a nostalgic performance from a band that isn’t known for giving up. An inspiration to bands who refuse to sell out to major labels, if anything, this tour shows Clap Your Hands’ stamina and lasting influence.
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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
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Arc Iris
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Aesthetic Magazine | Album Reviews, Concert Photography, Interviews, Contests 
Overall all I thought it was a good show. Arc Iris was meandering between interesting arrangements and a forced-art production. CYHSY (what’s left of it) was nice. Come As You Are was refreshing, Alec’s seeming affection for the city was flattering and yes … I was one of those in the crowd trying to add backup vocal harmonies (Heavy Metal most notably) in lieu of the missing members….
Posted by Ed Heffernan | September 30, 2013, 10:49 am