Live @ Radio 1 Stage, Reading Festival
24 Aug 2003
Someone brought a wrecking ball to this party. It’s shattered the remnants of punk rock and delivered them upon the stage where Karen *O (tonight dressed as her alter-ego, Super Karen) has a valiant effort in reassembling them as a ghostly foil to her vampiric self. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs seem like old hat now. The performance is always shambolic, well, at least Karen attempts to bring a slice of cabaret spectacle while bandmates Nick and Brian stand patiently by, playing notes as they should be to counteract the shrills of their heroic frontwoman.
When they play “Rich”, the stunning track they used to open with, it’s like someone’s dared Karen to go over the top – over the top even for her. There’s hardly any words strung between the melody and she’s struggling to keep up with her body (which was crumpled on the monitor, but swiftly raced to the side of the stage, then attempted a half-hearted star jump) which seems to have no respect for the fact that her voice is trying to pay the bills. “Pin” gathers the morale (the audience yelping along to the makeshift chorus), but they look less like a band than a talent show (despite Brian and Nick having built a screeching wall of noise around her). Fingers crossed that Karen gets it out of her system before they become a caricature of their former selves, or more so.