The three-piece band Yo La Tengo will perform in Oxford for its first time Tuesday night at The Lyric Oxford.
Yo La Tengo is an indie rock band that formed in 1984 and achieved critical success and a cult following throughout the ‘90s and ‘00s. The band’s newest record, “There’s a Riot Going On,” came out in March.
“(‘There’s a Riot Going On’ is) kind of a return to form for them,” said David Swider, the owner of local record store The End of All Music. “They kind of went back to what some of their best records from the mid ‘90s sounded like.”
This will be Yo La Tengo’s first time in Oxford, and because of that, Swider said the show is a big deal.
“They’re, like, legendary,” Swider said. “They’ve never played in Mississippi before, so this will be their first show in Mississippi. They are one of the best indie rock bands of all time.”
Swider said he is easily more excited about this show than he has been about any other show at The Lyric. He also said that he’s seen the band three times before but that each time has been different.
“I recommend people checking them out and coming to the show, because I don’t know that they’ll ever play in Oxford again,” Swider said.
Ben Ricketts, a local musician and Yo La Tengo fan, has seen Yo La Tengo perform live twice before, and he echoed Swider by saying that the shows were completely different.
Ricketts said he was late to finding out about Yo La Tengo, but now he considers them “a fantastic band and definitely one of the best live acts I have ever seen.”
Rickett said his favorite Yo La Tengo song is “Blue Line Swinger,” which he had never heard before he saw the band play live.
“(‘Blue Line Swinger’) is just everything there is to love about that band,” Ricketts said. “It’s like 9 1/2 minutes long. It’s everything that you would go to any of their albums looking for, but it’s in one giant song.”
Ricketts said he’s excited to see Yo La Tengo again, especially because this time, he’s going with a friend who recently heard of them.
“I hate to sound, like, overly fan-boyish here, but … I’m excited to experience someone else’s first time seeing them,” Ricketts said.
Katie Kaczmarz, a recent Ole Miss graduate and marketing manager for The Lyric, said that the venue is giving away a Yo La Tengo record autographed by all the band members on the day of the show. She encouraged people to enter the contest on The Lyric’s Facebook page for a chance to win this record.
