Jul 21 : "Million Years" - Wild Yaks (Brooklyn)

PRIOR PLACEMENT

A big surprise when I went to Glasslands on Thursday night was the band Wild Yaks. They did a phenomenal show, playing some great rock and delivering it with high-powered excitement.

It was a "surprise" to me because, after listening to online samples of the various bands that were going to be playing that night, I couldn't even imagine from the little music that Wild Yaks has on line the huge impact that their live performance would actually deliver.

Wild Yaks is a four member band, with the lead vocalist leading the whole show with interludes of over-the-top commentary between songs as well as high-energy jumping around the stage with a couple times mikes flying off into the audience. Almost matching his drive was their drummer who was another dynamo himself.

And over to the right-hand side of the stage were two singer / guitarists standing together and singing backup in unison. This reminded me a lot of the placement of singers in early rock bands from the fifties or early sixties. While most bands have singer / guitarists that do harmonies or provide some extra backing as the songs progress, the fact that these two were standing by themselves, close together and sang their backups as a two-member team just brought to mind the placement of singers in early rock bands.

The music is loud and aggressive rock with interesting hooks and melodic lines and some great Garage stylings. The performance definitely comes across at times as rough or even crazy around the edges, even chaotic, but it's also a very smooth delivery with the backup boys punctuating just at all the right times. Rough around the edges, chaotic, and smooth. All at once. I don't know how they do it, but they do.

I loved their show; I think everyone else did as well. If you ever see one of their shows listed, MAKE PLANS IMMEDIATELY. You'll have a good time.

But, alas, what they have posted on line just doesn't do their live work justice. In prowling around the Internets, I can find nothing that's representative of what I heard Thursday night. But here's "Million Years", which is one of their samples :::

So keep an eye on their page for the next LIVE show that they have coming along. Right now they seem to have one show coming up on September 5th at The Grand Victory. Here's the click to their Facebook page ::: Wild Yaks (CLICK HERE)