Coachella 2010: Yo La Tengo Review

Beginning the Sunday night homestretch of rock greatness—Spoon, Pavement, Thom Yorke—Yo La Tengo’s late afternoon set yesterday at Coachella felt far too small and intimate for the main Coachella Stage, with the band vacillating between fairly listless ballads (paradoxically always a strong suit on their records; see: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out’s “Our Way To Fall”) and charging indie rockers with a laidback insouciance that was a little less than exhilarating.

Sure, it was kind of cute when the band began a choreographed dance number (due to a supposed request from Sly Stone), and it was invigorating to hear their “Sister Ray”-gone-pop longform noise jam of “Pass the Hatchet, I’m the Goodkind” close out the show with a heretofore unheard of (at least during this set) muscular ruckus, but most of the set was simply ignorably hummy, with one of indie rock’s more important acts simply coasting on the occasional catchy hook or wild guitar squall.  Not a crushing disappointment, true, but still very much something of a letdown.