Indie rock legends Yo La Tengo are now one third of the way through their annual Hanukkah residency at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. The band’s Hanukkah shows always feature cool covers and surprise guests, and this year’s shows have been especially action-packed. In the first few nights, they paid tribute to. Ace Frehley and Spinal Tap, and their guests included Built To Spill’s Doug Martsch and former SNL star Ana Gasteyer. On Wednesday, the band’s night-four show ended with an all-star cover of a Patti Smith classic.
Patti Smith’s debut album Horses recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and it’ll still drop your jaw. The surprise guest opener for last night’s Yo La Tengo show was Bonnie “Prince” Billy, another musician who has spent decades in the indie rock trenches. The night ended with Will Oldham, rocking a Mickey Mouse shirt and leading the band through a sick-ass version of Smith’s Horses banger “Free Money.” That song’s co-writer, longtime Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye, also took part. The National singer Matt Berninger was just kind of jumping up and down at the side of the stage for most of that cover, but he eventually joined on on keyboard and backing vocals. Watch it below.
That wasn’t the only cover that Will Oldham sang with Yo La Tengo last night, either. The first encore of the show was Oldham and YLT covering (swear to god) Pink’s 2023 self-help single “Trustfall,”
Matt Berninger jumped in on more of last night’s encores, too. He joined Yo La Tengo to sing his own song “Inland Ocean” and the National’s “Bloodbuzz Ohio” and to cover two 1965 songs, Fred Neil’s “Little Bit Of Rain” and Barry McGuire’s “Eve Of Destruction.” Watch the whole thing below.
