Tune Yards – Cargo, London 15/02/10

19 February 2010, 13:02 | Written by Anika Mottershaw

(Live)

I’ve been to plenty of shows at the Cargo. The audiences are characteristically restrained and reserved, rarely ever showing any real enthusiasm or emotion. But not tonight at Cargo. This was something very special.

First were Canada’s Think About Life. With a fun, tongue in cheek light-heartedness similar to the style of YACHT they warmed up the crowd nicely. Set highlight was disco pop tune ‘Set You On Fire’, in which Tune Yards’ Merrill Garbus couldn’t resist climbing on stage to dance to join in with the infectious sing a long chorus.

Trash Kit followed, taking to the stage adorned in tribal face paint. Their tunes were all momentarily enjoyable but ultimately uninteresting with the songs never properly developing into anything truly exciting. Admittedly, they are not my usual cup of tea and so I was perhaps unable to fully appreciate what they had to offer.

There was a real buzz before Tune Yards took to the stage. Tune Yards is the stage name of Merill Garbus. Merrill Garbis is incredible. Absolutely incredible. Amazing in the true sense of the word. Watching her perform is fascinating; she’s completely unique and there is no one like her.

The room was totally packed and the atmosphere was electric. Merrill was centre stage joined by bassist Nate Brenner, who subtly added so much to each song. Garbus meticulously loops her voice and drum beats and plays ukulele while she sings. It sounds like something you’ve seen before, but you really haven’t seen this before. Her eccentric vocal delivery and inventive song structures make for a thoroughly exciting listen. The crowd LOVED it. Every time she’d put her foot down on the loop pedal to bring the drums back in you could hear the crowd roar and cheer, with the whole room swaying and dancing to the rhythms.

They performed songs from 2009′s word of mouth success Bird Brains as well as some newer unreleased songs, including the ridiculously brilliant ‘Gangsta’ which has everyone in Cargo bouncing. The set went by far too quickly. It was endearing watching Merrill, who had no self consciousness but a really wonderful presence that was in no way overly confident or too self assured. She is naturally brilliant, and you could tell she was genuinely surprised and taken aback by the rapturous applause and yells of ‘I love you!’ from the audience. She deserved every single clap and cheer, her set cannot be faulted.

She left the stage only to come back after what has to be the loudest and most relentless encore request I’ve ever heard (and I’ve been to over 300 gigs in the past year and a half). When giving the crowd the option of a new song or ‘Sunshine’, the cheers were so loud she had no choice but to play both. The new song, titled ‘You Yes You’ had a jump-a-long part in which Merrill invited the crowd to jump with her. And everyone did.

Leaving Cargo you could feel the excitement. Complete strangers started talking to each other just to gush praise together. Phrases like ‘gig of the year’ and ‘hard to beat that’ were floating around, and I’m pretty sure nobody left that venue without a smile on their face. Very special indeed. Merrill Garbus is a true, natural talent and a wonderful performer.

Do not wait to go and see Tune Yards.