Yeasayer w/ Lydia Ainsworth @ The Ready Room (11/5/2016)

The Yeasayer portion of this show was certainly better than their opening performance a couple of weeks ago. And overall the show was worth taking an "unplanned" home trip for. Interestingly, I got a chance to personally interact with both acts after each of their performances.

For this tour as an opener, Lydia is traveling pretty light. She has a laptop (a MacBook Pro, obvy) to play the backing track while she sings and sometimes plays keyboard. It wasn't fancy, but I thought it was still a solid performance. About half of the songs were new, and the others were off her debut album. After her performance she set up camp at the merchandise table, so I went over to ask if a new album was on the way - she said that it should drop in February (yay!). She was pleased to hear that her being the opening act was the deciding factor in me flying home for the show, and gave me an appreciative hug. I thought she was a pleasant young lady - she represents Toronto (and Canadians) well.

The main act didn't disappoint either. They were energetic, as usual, and I think they appreciated the energy that the crowd brought (especially on a few of their most popular songs). I was actually a little worried about the size of the crowd when Lydia was on, but it filled out pretty nicely for Yeasayer (though I don't think it quite sold out the 750 capacity). Once again, they played a nice mix of old and new. For stage decoration they had some lighted cutouts that were similar to the cover art on the latest album (Amen & Goodbye). The rest of the light show was also pretty solid, especially for a relatively indie act at a relatively small venue; I couldn't tell how much of that gear belonged to the venue and how much they brought. As for my interaction with the band... I came across the guitarist and bassist rounding the corner of the building after leaving the venue - I gave them a thumbs up and a "well done", and they thanked me, wished me a good night, and gave me a pat on the back. I'll take it.

Rating: 4.4/5