Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

“Off, off with your head/Dance, dance ‘til you‘re dead”. The first words uttered and in one simple couplet manages to sum up the tone of the next two hours at Manchester Academy.

If you’ve not really kept up with the adventures of Karen O and friends over the past few years, things have changed drastically since ‘Fever To Tell’ exploded out of the speakers in 2003 with a garage rock scuzz that sent to the blogosphere into overdrive. Three years later they released the criminally underrated ‘Show Your Bones’. If their debut was the intense, sex-fuelled romp then ‘SYB’ is the post-coital record which celebrates itself with a wry smile instead of seductive eyes.

And then we come to ‘It’s Blitz’, the third chapter in the story and the reason why the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are out up north tonight to promote the newly released offering. Basically this is the soundtrack to the first night out with that person you snared on ‘Fever To Tell’, relentlessly danceable and probably 2009’s best disco album.

And as the opening lines of ’Heads Will Roll’ will attest to, these guys still mean business. On comes Brian Chase and Nick Zinner, the crowd goes wild. On comes Karen O, the crowd goes mental. Okay, she’s a wearing a pink gimp mask and there’s a giant floating eyeball at the back of the stage but all of these idiosyncrasies somehow compliment their whole persona.

Live they have always been a force to be reckoned with but as their back catalogue gets bigger and arguably more impressive, YYY’s are now a true spectacle in the flesh.

So after imploring us to dance until we croak it she then insults everyone in the room on a beautifully filthy version of ‘Black Tongue; “Boy you‘re just a stupid bitch/And girl you just a no good dick” still remains one of the best putdowns ever to be put to CD.

With tonight the first UK live performance of some of these songs, it’s amazing how ’Dull Life’ already sounds anthemic with Ms. O stalking the stage like a predator rather than worrying how they will go down with the crowd. Luckily though, they know how good their fans are. The audience is like a tidal wave going from left to right, pushing up against the barrier and trying to catch the countless bottles of water being dished out by the security guards.

By this point the neon gimp mask is off and so it should be as Karen O transforms herself from punky-disco vamp to vulnerable folky for the autumnal sing-along that is ‘Gold Lion’. And whilst it is no ‘Maps’ (we’ll come to that later), ‘Skeletons’ offers a respite for the crowd to listen to a voice that can sound beautifully pure as well as, err, pure filth.

There had been rumours that Zinner had ditched his buzz saw riffs for a synthesised sound but they can be well and truly be dispelled as rather than changing his signature sound, he’s simply diversifying the type of sound that YYY’s can make. Don’t be surprised to see him get the harmonica out for album number four. Being a keen photographer, he takes numerous pictures throughout the night with everyone in the crowd jostling for position to be part of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ scrapbook.

They know how to work the audience too, Karen O intermittently telling the audience “how beautiful you look” and Nick Zinner’s awkward looking frame offering a raised handclap after most songs.

But then all of a sudden, the lead lady skips offstage as if something is amiss, drummer Brian Chase gives his band mate the eye and then the newly familiar introduction to ‘Zero’ kicks in. She runs back on wearing the very same leather biker jacket from the video and the 1500 people inside are all finding themselves jumping higher and singing louder than ever before. As far as lead singles go they don’t get much better than this. The way song builds up into that sky scraping chorus where the vocals are by turns breathy, urgent and orgasmic is special. And even more special when witnessing it ten feet away from the band.

The encore is somewhat predictable but has lost none of its greatness over the years, ‘Y Control’ is still brilliant, ’Maps’ tugs at the heartstrings with new-found sincerity. A song for all the couples in the room, there still remains a dark underbelly to the song; “Lay off/Don‘t stray” compressing the emotions of women everywhere forever scared about their partner’s wandering eye.

‘Date With The Night’ however, is where the band are able to shine brightest. Remembered best for it’s “Choke, choke, choke” squalling, the overtly sexual refrain of “Just take a bite/No hanging/No picture” and “Both thighs/Squeeze tight” is perhaps the most appropriate snapshot of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at their most visceral.

And that’s it. The band depart. Zinner flashes his camera but this time a lightning strike of flashes come straight back at him. We may not have danced ‘til we died, but we gave it a bloody good try.

Image credit to Guus Krol