Yves Tumor arrived in NYC for a pair of shows at Webster Hall and the week of Halloween, and I was lucky to be fit into the press squad to cover the second date.
The press list was booked up by the time I made my request, but the night of the show I got word moments before the fist performers were to hit the stage that somebody had dropped and that I was going to be able to take that allotted spot. I want to start out by giving a big shout out to whoever gave up their spot, because if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have seen one of my favorite shows in several years.
From listening to their albums, I had generally thought of Yves Tumor’s sound as Alternative music that enjoys an ambient vibe and fucks heavy with a fuzzy guitar pedal, while the vocals usually range from the drowsy to the cool and smooth variety, even when the music is pushing from something heavier or even rough angles. I was legit expecting something like what we heard on 2020’s Heaven To a Tortured Mind. The set I witnessed showed Yves Tumor go full Rock Star, approaching their songs with a sort of ferocity and attitude that went beyond what I would’ve imagined from listening to the more Rock-leaning 2021 EP, The Asymptotical World.
That Rock Star persona suited them well, and the crowd was loving every second of it. From the moment they came onstage to perform “Gospel for a New Century” the crowd was making the floor shake, and at Webster Hall this is the clearest sign that fans are pumped for this show. There was little to no stage banter from Yves Tumor, which speaks to an imposing stage presence capable of captivating a crowd without resorting to corny tactics like shouting out the city in which they’re performing.
On the performance side, I couldn’t get over how many times I saw people singing-along to pretty much every song on the set. The guitar work, particularly the solos, felt genuine (read: not gimmicky) and it unlocked a feeling in me that I didn’t get to enjoy since I was a teenager in love with ’60s-’70s Classic Rock.
My favorite moment happened to come right at the end. The night finished with a dope performance of “Secrecy Is Incredibly Important to the Both of Them,” a Post-Punk banger off 2021 EP The Asymptotical World. Much like the rest of the set, the studio version looks pale in comparison to its live counterpart. My eyes couldn’t detect anyone that wasn’t dancing, with Yves giving fans one more close encounter by performing amongst them for half of the song, even leaning their body against those close by for a few lines. From banging their head with their mic in the heat of the intense moment to walking over to their guitarist and grabbing a fistful of hair right before they went to play the riff, fans were given more and more reasons to keep hollering.
To quote Yves Tumor (on “Romanticist”): “Swear you got me hypnotized”
Photo Credit: Oscar Oliva Jr / Pursuit Of Dopeness
