Show Reviews... Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

When Satan Says Dance, You Clap Your Hands and Say YEAH!!!

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Words: Ashley Marie Sansotta

Photos: Ashley Marie Sansotta

Appeared:

April 21, 2007

Club Firestone

Orlando - Florida

w/ special guests: Elvis Perkins in Dearland

My tunnel vision was in full effect as I dived head first into the sea of indie lovers and wannabe hipsters. I finally reached my destination and came up for air in front of the stage, where I waited patiently for frontman Alec Ounsworth’s beautiful adolescent-like cries to float into the mic and out of the speakers next to me.

Well, it wouldn’t be a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah show without the notorious technical difficulties – and the sound is almost always the perpetrator. Beginning with “Gimme Some Salt,” I painfully struggled to hear the words coming from Ounsworth’s mouth. Luckily, the problem was camouflaged, and it immediately became apparent that I wasn’t the only person who had every one of CYHSY’s lyrics memorized. All of Club Firestone harmonized together, which made up for those few moments when the sound wasn’t exactly up to par.

Contrary to most of the CYHSY show reviews I’ve read, their energy level was as high as a kite – escalating even higher during obvious crowd favorites such as “Satan Said Dance,” “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth,” and “Clap Your Hands,” which were all appropriately sprinkled throughout their set.

“Goodbye to Mother and the Cove” came to life when members from Elvis Perkins in Dearland (their opening act) joined the stage disguised in Mardi Gras masks to play horns through an extended bridge. The song climaxed towards the end when Ounsworth emerged from the synchronized pandemonium with a large megaphone in his hand. How perfectly fitting... I wondered if the decision to add this into their routine had anything to do with their reoccurring sound issues... hmmm? I couldn’t help but smile as he shouted his poetic words through the megaphone and into his mic.

Before leaving the stage (and then returning again for an encore), Ounsworth told his Orlando fans that they had been the best crowd they’ve played for since Nashville, vowing that he never says things like that. Whether he truly meant it or not, I believed him. And I’m certain that we all did.