The take-me-as-I-am honestness of Yo La Tengo is a perfect match for the intimacy of Maxwell’s unadorned back room. And the Hoboken club’s eight star-studded nights of "Hanukah charity concerts" had plenty of what Maxwell’s and Yo La Tengo are known for: musical moments that transcend the mundane.
"We’re just willing to try things that we wouldn’t try before," said Ira Kaplan, the band’s lead guitarist, who lives in Hoboken. "These Hanukah shows are kind of an indication of that. To be playing with David Byrne, to be playing with Ray Davies, to be playing with William Parker, the bassist with Other Dimensions of Music – these are things that I just would not have been capable of doing a few years ago. I would have been just too intimidated by those people to feel that we are capable of offering something to them."
This year’s concerts ran from Nov. 29 to Dec. 6. All eight nights featured a unique show, complete with different guest bands, different comedians and different charities receiving the proceeds.
In addition to industry giants Ronnie Spector, Davies and Byrne, some of this year’s guests included comedians Janeane Garofalo, Todd Barry and Sarah Silverman, as well as Other Dimensions of Music from New York, the Girl’s Guitar Club of Los Angeles, Virginia Dare from San Francisco and the Sun Ra Arkestra from Philadelphia.
"It’s certainly easy to rattle off your Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame members," said Kaplan, referring to this year’s highlights. But, he quickly added, many of the great moments evolved from spontaneous collaboration. Yo La Tengo’s latest release is a 12"/CD single featuring several versions of Sun Ra’s "Nuclear War." One night during this year’s concerts, the Sun Ra Arkestra, three of the four members of Other Dimensions in Music, and a South American comedian performing as Faracito joined Yo La Tengo for an impromptu rendition of "Nuclear War."
"We were trying to see how funny the song could be and still be serious," Kaplan said. "It was certainly funny. I hope it didn’t lose its seriousness. I hope it almost made it, ah, more serious."
Finding enough guest talent to fill eight nights was not problematic. "We just asked lots of our favorite people," he explained. "We took advantage of the fact that people are willing to say no. But incredibly, all these people said yes and they’d be willing to come and donate their time."
It’s that off-the-cuff quality, combined with rarely playing a song more than once, that made the shows so challenging. "They’re a human jukebox," declared Anne O’Neill, lead singer, songwriter and harpist of the band Virginia Dare. "It’s frightening. It’s just not natural."
Just before their show, "Ira came up to our table and said, ‘Mary, we need to talk,’ " O’Neill recalled. "I was like ‘f___, what did we do wrong?’ He had an idea for this beautiful Dylan song ("I Threw It All Away"). Brad (O’Neill’s husband and fellow band member) wrote out the chords for me and we practiced a few times."
Once they were on stage, however, "it was amazing," she said. Her husband, and guitarist Brad Johnson, agreed. "It didn’t matter too much that I didn’t know the song, because I knew they would carry it," he said. "I love their music. It’s great to hear a band that can be so melodic and so noisy all together. They sound like they’re playing it ’cause they love it."
But even Kaplan admits that their freewheeling style takes a toll. Recalling their first attempt at Hanukah concerts last year at Maxwell’s, Kaplan admitted, "As it got closer and closer, we thought, ‘Do we dare?’ It was like looking over a cliff."
"But we did it and it was really fun," he said. "Really hard. Really fun. It was almost too much fun not to do it again."
Besides being fun, the concerts help local charities. Beneficiaries for this year’s concerts included: Social Tees Animal Rescue and the Dolphin Project; Arts for Art; the Hoboken Homeless Shelter; the Civil Rights Project at Harvard; Global Kids; Sanctuary for Families; WFMU in Jersey City; Anthology Film Archives; the Film Forum; and the Highlands Coalition.
"We try to make them, if not local, then personal," Kaplan said. "Either friends of ours are involved or fans of ours have written to say or mentioned in passing that they work for certain people."
The band’s relationship with Hoboken and with Maxwell’s dates back to the days before they were even called Yo La Tengo. Kaplan remembers one special night when they were playing at the club with some friends.
"The Feelies had been dormant for many years but they had a lot of side projects," he said. "One of these was The Willies and it was clear from the sound check that this was the return of The Feelies. They were trying out their new sounds under a pseudonym. I wanted to look around and say ‘Did you hear this? The Feelies are back!’ "
Moments like these – born of the intimacy of "living-room" playing – are exactly what the Hanukah concerts are all about. In the darkness of the night and among friends, chances can be taken and old limits surpassed. For continually emerging artists such as Yo La Tengo, next year’s possibilities have not yet even been glimpsed. And given their penchant for challenges, another round of concerts next Hanukah seems likely. They’re
not likely to leave town anytime soon.
"We have too many records to move," Kaplan concedes. "Until we have a really compelling reason, we’re not going anywhere." q