Yeasayer at the 20th Century Theater

I caught Yeasayer here in Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago at the surprisingly charming 20th Century Theater.

I had expected the theater to be a fairly large venue before coming for this show. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a pretty small stage. It's smaller than I would have expected a band like Yeasayer to command, but it made for a very intimate show.

The opening act was Delicate Steve, a band I saw open for Akron/Family at MOTR Pub more than a year ago. They were even better this time around. If the titular Steve isn't named a guitar god in Rolling Stones next list, something is wrong with this world; he was definitely one of the best that I've ever seen live. I chatted with the band after the show and they actually recognized me from the other show last year!

I'll be honest; in comparison to their opening act, I found Yeasayer to be a little disappointing. By far, my favorite work from them has been their 2010 album Odd Blood and the three or four songs performed from that album were definitely the stand-outs of their set. I am pretty excited for the new album and they performed a lot of new songs, but I'm not yet convinced that they're going to live up.

Regardless, it was still great to see one of my favorite acts and to revisit a new favorite!

Delicate Steve release a new album, Positive Force, tomorrow and Yeasayer is set to release a new album in August.

Mini setlist:

Delicate Steve - "The Ballad of Speck and Pebble" from Wondervisions

Delicate Steve - "Wally Wilder" from Positive Force

Yeasayer - "I Remember" from Odd Blood

Yeasayer - "Henrietta" from Fragrant World