Last Monday, March 24, indie rock band Yo La Tengo took to the stage at Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland’s Waterloo Arts District. Composed of Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew, the band cycled through an eclectic setlist of underrated fan favorites and a few sparse hits, shifting the atmosphere of the venue from subdued to frantic and back once more to calm over the course of the evening.

The concert was an unconventional performance in a couple of key ways. First, it was the only concert I’ve ever been to that didn’t have an opening act. The trio simply appeared onstage at 7:45 p.m. and launched into their first song, no introductions, no preamble. They also didn’t put much effort into appearances—since they’re an older group, it’s not like I was expecting coordinated outfits or costume changes or anything—which was a bit of a surprise anyway considering how standard visual appeal has become for performances today. Yo La Tengo wore casual clothes, no visible makeup and had no props or visuals beyond two lines of colored lights and a disco ball that they turned on for exactly three songs.

The setlist itself also defied expectations. The band’s current tour doesn’t actually correspond to any album release, so they played songs off a variety of records, although a whopping seven still came from 2023’s “This Stupid World.” I liked the decision to divide the concert into sections by mood: pre-intermission was the “quieter set,” which I vastly preferred, and post-intermission was the “louder set,” which was largely staticky guitar feedback. The band also returned for an encore where they played three covers with ties to the Cleveland rock music scene. Interestingly, of the concert’s 19 original songs, none of them even fell within the band’s 30 most-streamed on Spotify. My favorites were, and I’ll admit that I hadn’t heard either of them before that night, “Miles Away” and “I Feel Like Going Home,” both of which featured Hubley’s soft, enchanting vocals. The band’s commitment to only playing deep cuts is truly admirable and not something you see from a lot of other acts these days.

This brings me to my only criticism of the evening: the concert felt a bit self-indulgent at times. No hits sounds cool in theory, but in practice it can be tough to sit through. I get it, I’m not owed a performance of my favorite song, but no “Autumn Sweater” or “Our Way to Fall” or “You Can Have It All” was disappointing and there’s no getting around that. Also—and maybe I’m being a bit self-indulgent with some of these descriptions—they played an almost entirely instrumental song that felt like being trapped in purgatory for its ten-minute-plus run. Reader, I thought hours had gone by. During this song Kaplan also did this weird pantomime where he pretended to smash his guitar but didn’t actually break it? I didn’t understand what the point of it was, except to maybe distract the audience from the song’s grating bass/drumline that didn’t change even one time in the whole ten minutes.

All said, however, Yo La Tengo played a solid concert and introduced me to a side of their discography I hadn’t heard before. I’m far more partial to the band’s slower numbers, and my favorite moments were those when Hubley had the mic—she has a truly beautiful voice and a delicate touch that she can just as easily relinquish to go full-throttle on the drum kit. The next time the band goes on tour, I would encourage anyone interested to attend, although I’d emphasize that a close listen to their discography is likely necessary to get the most out of the experience.