Despite being part of a shopping zone, between a mall and a historic boat, with most events held through downtown Manhattan’s ultra-classy River-to-River Festival, South Street Seaport (QRO venue review) has somehow managed to put on alternative/indie artists – for free. And these artists haven’t just been your up-and-coming acts destined to play bigger places & bigger crowds, like The National in 2007 (QRO photos) or Dirty Projectors in 2008 (QRO photos) – both of which have/are going on to play Midtown’s massive Terminal 5 (QRO venue review). Nor are they just your established indie acts with high brow cred, like U.K. art-punk forerunners Wire in 2008 (QRO live review) or nineties alt-act that went on to found major indie Merge Records, Superchunk, in 2009 (QRO live review). They’re not even just young, all-ages-appeal acts to bring out the kids, like No Age in 2008 (QRO live review) or The Pains of Being Pure at Heart in 2009 (QRO live review). No, the Seaport Music Festival has also managed to book some ‘out there’ electronic artists, who’ve been able to make their sound work outdoors, like Atlas Sound in 2008 (QRO live review), Black Moth Super Rainbow in 2009 (QRO live review), and YACHT on Friday, August 6th.
Electronica can be tough outdoors in even the twilight (that’s why BMSR had a man in a monkey costume…), but YACHT’s dance sounds are fit to get their crowd moving. Yet the Portland act is no overblown DJ, but graduated from the solo project of Jona Bechtolt to a duo with girlfriend Claire L. Evans (QRO interview with both) – and are now a foursome, with bassist Rob Kleswetter and drummer Jeffrey Brodsky, making for a full-fledged band. This has meant that they less rely on the projection show they employed as a duo (QRO photos) – not relying on projections anymore was very useful outdoors, as any slide show projected onto a screen gets lost in the daylight & behind the band.
However, at Seaport YACHT retained their trademark black-white dichotomy in appearance: the black-haired Bechtolt dressed in all white, the bleach-blonde Evans in black – Brodsky & Kleswetter classed it up by wearing tuxedoes (impressive that any drummer could perform in a tux…). This unusual look only got more so as the set went on, with Bechtolt rocking through his suit, and the pale, short-haired Evans getting to the point where she looked like a mannequin or one of those opposable figures used in art schools. And then there are their songs, like “I’m In Love With a Ripper” & “The Afterlife”, and 
lyrics like, “Will we go to Heaven? / Or will we go to Hell? / It’s my understanding / That neither are real” – not exactly what someone unfamiliar with the band might have expected after early piece “Summer Song” (not the strongest on last year’s See Mystery Lights – QRO review – but they pretty much had to play it, didn’t they?…). Plus, covering X’s “Nausea”? That’s not just out there for a free outdoor shopping place show – that’s unusual for a dancetronic act as well…
YACHT covering X’s “Nausea” live at South Street Seaport in New York, NY on August 6th, 2010:
While the crowd at South Street Seaport were a little thrown by that cover, they lapped up the engaging dance tunes that YACHT put down, such as refrain, “I’m in love with the rhythm”, or singing along to the non-word chorus of closer “Psychic City” (“Ah-ee-yah-ee-yai-yah huh!”). And the crowd was not just YACHT loyalists: Bechtolt & Evans remarked at seeing so many new faces since they last played NYC (QRO photos), in March at Bowery Ballroom (QRO venue review) – before breaking into dueling lines, “Tastes great”/”Less filling”-style argument about the crowd, “Don’t they look good?” “But don’t they sound good?” “Yeah, but don’t they look good?!?” “Yeah, yeah… – but don’t they SOUND good?!?” Unfortunately, few in the audience took advantage of YACHT’s request for questions (“About anything – not just us, but anything…”), beyond someone asking Bechtolt if the singer would be his boyfriend (“Sure – I don’t have anything to do…”). The Q&A was better used three years ago at McCarren Park Pool (QRO venue review), but that was when YACHT was still near-solo, so easier to approach, as well as only serving then as first opener, so out in the daylight to see & chat (QRO live review). But the full YACHT headlined South Street Seaport (please, no nautical puns…) for their last East Coast date of the year, before heading back into the studio, giving the Seaport one more touch of the engagingly strange for 2010.
