JournalStar.com - Ground Zero Online

Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O captivates audience
BY L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / GZO
Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 - 08:31:22 pm CDT

OMAHA -- Intense. That’s the word that came immediately to mind after the Yeah Yeah Yeahs delivered a sweaty 70-minute performance Tuesday night at a packed Sokol Auditorium. And most of that intensity came from singer Karen O.

A riveting, theatrical performer, Karen O constantly bounces around the stage, sometimes thrusting a Michael Jacksonesque jeweled-gloved hand high above her head, wrapping her head in a cloth at others. Singing beautifully in some passages, Karen O can howl and scream with the best metal singers.

With her Beatles-like bowl haircut, painted face and odd geometrically patterned t-shirt jumper, she visually compelling standing still. When she starts moving and making noise, you can’t keep your eyes off her. I’m not sure she’d like the appellation, but she’s a rock star if I’ve ever seen one.

Never acknowledging the crowd until the final number of the set -- a very New York thing to do -- Karen O delivered just what the Yeah Yeah Yeahs reputation promises -- art punk with plenty of charisma and enough sexuality to give the show some electric edge.

The latter was most evident when she shoved the microphone in her mouth, eventually falling to her knees. That imagery is unmistakable. But the sexuality in the lyrics of the songs from “Fever To Tell” also adds to that sensibility, even if Karen O is a little goofier and less sensual in her performances these days.

In part, that’s because the majority of Tuesday’s show was lifted from “Show Your Bones,” a moodier, more subdued effort than the raw “Fever to Tell.”

That doesn’t mean that the concert didn’t rock -- drummer Brian Chase hammers away with the best noisemakers and guitarist Nick Zinner’s riffs are unrelentingly spiky.

But the keyboards from Zinner and Imaad Wasif, who also adds bass and acoutic guitar for the core trio, give the songs more texture and, often, a moodiness that comes through as effectively live as it does on record.

Not surprisingly, the biggest cheers for a new song came for “Gold Lion,” the catchy single. But I was most impressed with “The Sweets” and “Dudley.”

After an exhausting 50 minutes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs encored with three songs, inclduing “Maps,” their MTV-breakthrough hit. When that ballad ended, some of those who packed Sokol started streaming out. They missed “Date With the Night” a clattering bit of arty chaocophony that served as a final reminder that, at their core, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are still a gritty rock band.