Yorn, Guster Rock Wolf Trap

July 31
Wolf Trap, Vienna, Virginia

Yorn photos courtesy of Kerry Ellis
http://www.theoriginalblackcat.com

On a clear summer night, Pete Yorn and Guster paired up for an impressive show at Wolf Trap. Yorn and Guster had met seven years ago while playing South By Southwest in Austin, though this tour marks their first one together. Both bands played just about all of the material you'd want to hear from them, arranged pretty much just as you'd want to hear it.

Yorn played a full 80-minute set drawing heavily from his first album (that life-altering, life-affirming album called Music for the Morning After, which I still deem one of the finest rock albums of this decade). Joined at times by what seemed an unusual number of guitarists (three? four?), Yorn delivered a powerful show. One arrangement, though, didn't work that night. For the song, "On Your Side," Yorn sang the slow ballad well but seemed overpowered and outpaced by his band.

Later in his set, he mentioned he often gets requests for the song he was about to play, particularly recently when he played Bonnaroo, even though he didn't write it. That song, "Young Folks," is by the fab British indie rock group Peter, Bjorn and John (eh, "Peter Bjorn" does kinda sound like "Pete Yorn," so the confusion is understandable). Yorn also performed a couple of other covers in his set, as he usually does, including Warren Zevon's "Splendid Isolation," which also appears on his third, most recent album, Nightcrawler, and "There's a Light that Never Goes Out," by the Smiths. He also tossed in a couple of rockin' song from his EP, Westerns, the country tinged "Don't Mean Nothing" and "The Good Advice." Fantastic set.

Guster had a great night too (redeeming themselves for me after what I thought was a fairly awful show there last summer, as if then they had purposefully come up with the most pop-saturated, annoying arrangements). This time, though, their unique sounds, great percussion, and strong vocals and harmonies all shone through, and their arrangements were rockin'. This Boston-based indie band's set spanned their 13 years and five albums together. The set ended with "Happier" from Lost and Gone Forever, and included "Fa Fa" and "Barrel of a Gun" from that album, as well as "Demons" from their quintessential second album (1996), Goldfly.

During the encore, Yorn joined Guster on stage for a fantastic cover of "Suspicious Minds," only to solidify the fact that this co-bill was an excellent plan.

Pete Yorn's setlist:

June
For Nancy
For Us
Life On A Chain
Splendid Isolation (Warren Zevon)
Just Another
The Man
Closet
Policies
On Your Side
Murray
Young Folks (Peter Bjorn and John)
Crystal Village
Strange Condition
Good Advice
Don't Mean Nothin'
There is a Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths)

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Pete Yorn