AUSTIN, Texas — The Yeah Yeah Yeahs opened their Sunday evening set at weekend one of the Austin City Limit Music Festival with a slow build.
Starting with “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” a slow, smoldering track off their newest album, “Cool It Down,” the band established where they are now musically – gone are the early days of the chaotic, two-minute punk songs. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs didn’t come on stage running right into it and they’re not running right into as a band anymore either.
The New York City garage punk/indie music scene of the early 2000s that they were so much a part of has past and many of its bands have broken up. 2022’s “Cool It Down” was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first album since 2013 and explores more ambient sounds while not letting go of the band’s punk rock ethos.
The band’s opening slow build on the ACL Honda Stage continued with “Cheated Hearts” off their second album, before peaking with “Pin” off their debut album, “Fever to Tell.”
Singer Karen O, wearing a sparkly bodysuit and red gloves with fringes, brought her signature style of singing with the occasional scream and high yelp. But an underrated asset of the band is conservatory-educated drummer Brian Chase, whose contribution was apparent as they played through new track “Burning” and its grand swells.
PHOTOS: ACL 2023 - Weekend 1
Texas is “a sacred space for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs,” Karen O told the audience on Sunday. Many of the songs they played on Sunday night were written and recorded at Sonic Range near El Paso, “right here in Texas, y’all,” she said.
Towards the end of the set, the crowd was treated to old photos of the band as they played early single “Y Control.” Then, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs pulled out their two biggest hits of the evening – “Maps” and closer “Heads Will Roll.”
“This is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs love song,” Karen O said of “Maps,” dedicating it to someone you loved and lost and to “all the lovers in the audience.”
Finishing with “Heads Will Roll,” the band brought a burst of spontaneous energy on a song designed for getting a big crowd moving, which is just what happened as the sun set on Zilker Park.