Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow [DVD]

More than slightly crazy and thoroughly fun artrock trio, Karen O (vocals), Nick Zinner (guitars) and Brian Chase (drums), have a lot of fun on stage at the Fillmore in San Francisco (with the incidental involvement of a few thousand other folk). Released between 'Fever to Tell' and 'Show Your Bones', this DVD contains all of their biggest songs at that time, one from 'Show Your Bones' and some that have not yet been released in any other form.

The DVD contains:
Live at the Fillmore (17th March 2004);

Y-Control (Fever To Tell)
Black Tongue (Fever To Tell)
Rockers To Swallow (Unreleased)
Down Boy (Unreleased)
Cold Light (Fever To Tell)
Machine (Machine EP)
Modern Things (Unreleased)
Cheated Hearts (Show Your Bones)
Mystery Girl (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Maps (Fever To Tell)
Date With The Night (Fever To Tell & DWTN EP)
Miles Away (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Poor Song (Unreleased)
Our Time (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Art Star (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Modern Romance (Fever To Tell)

+ Bonus Tracks
Live At The Fillmore (16th March 2004);

10x10 (Unreleased)
Black Tongue (Fever To Tell & even better the second time)
Sealings (Unreleased)
Miles Away (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Tick (Fever To Tell)

Additional Features:

'Fukouka Nagoya Osaka Tokyo'
Japan Behind The Scenes
A short recording of the Japanese tour; not a documentary - don't expect much.

'They Don't Love You Like I Love You'
Interviews by Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze
Highly missable interviews with audience members arriving at the Fillmore show.

Music Videos:
Maps (dir. by Patrick Daughters)
Date With The Night (dir. by Patrick Daughters)
Y-Control (dir. by Spike Jonze)
Pin (dir. by Tunde Adebimpe)

This is a well put together and highly enjoyable film as long as you remember that it's about the music, the band aren't hot about baring their souls in extended interviews, and has everything there is to like about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. At no point did I see Karen 'eat a bunch of grapes on stage' (Robert Burrow), although i did see her eat the microphone, some tin-foil, one jalapeno crisp and the head of a (chocolate) bunny.

All in all, sheer brilliance.

[Originally written 19 Feb 2005, edited 9 September 2007]

Dont get me wrong the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are great. I loved the first EP and thought Fever To Tell was cool, if not quite as good, and I was totally gutted to have missed their show in Brixton this year. Everyone says the YYY's come into their own live and I thought buying this DVD would be the next best thing, however there just seems to be something missing. Karen O, who looks like a Toni and Guy poster but is still the coolest woman ever, struts squeels and sings her heart out in her own inimitable style. Nick Zinners guitar playing is superb and the guy who plays drums does his thing, but for some reason it just left me cold. Aside from the omission of 'Bang!' and 'Pin' (surely 2 of their best songs) the setlist is fine too, but I just didnt get it, the DVD just didnt capture my imagination for some reason. The Videos are a welcome addition and the fan documentary is ok, if not something you'll want to see more than once, but I wanted to see more stuff about them, more backstage stuff or interviews or whatever. All you really get is Karen and Nick speaking to some Japanese people and talking about the time she fell over a speaker, which again is cool, but I wanted more of an insight into the world of the YYY's.
This DVD isnt bad by any means, but I didnt fall in love with it like I expected. YYY's fans will love the videos and new songs but something about the fillmore show left me unmoved. Maybe you just had to be there.

If you've never seen YYY live before firstly WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU secondly you should buy this. It doesn't quite capture the intensity of the live performance, which is impossible to do anyway as it's a 'you gotta be there to experience it' sort of thing, and there's less oppurtunity to jump around like a loony unless you live alone. However, don't let odd looks from your housemates stop you because you can't help but dance around when you listen to YYY, karen's energy is too infectious. The videos are all weird and wonderful and there's some cool behind the scenes stuff. The one thing I would have liked more of was interviews with the band as there's very little material of them just talking to the film crew. At under a tenner though, it's great value for money, featuring an entire concert, the videos from all 4 singles and some stuff behind the scenes. Any fan of YYY or anybody just getting into their music should definitely buy this, it's fabulous, dahling.