American indie rock band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (CYHSY) performed at Turner Hall Ballroom in Milwaukee tonight. It was their first visit and yet, guitarist Robbie Guertin, while declaring his appreciation for Brew City, pronounced it like a native: "It's great to be in Ma-wok-y," he said. (Past life Milwaukeean, perhaps?)
The Brooklyn- and Philadelphia-based band are touring in support of their third album, "Hysterical," that came out in September. Prior to "Hysterical," the band released "Some Loud Thunder" in 2007 and a self-titled album in 2005.
Tonight, they drew from all three albums, with crowd pleasers, for the most part, remaining with songs from the first record. But overall, the appeal of their upbeat melancholia filled the room and the medium-sized crowd seemed to be a collection of true fans who braved the chilly evening to check out a band they were eager to welcome to their home turf.
Over the past few years, there were occasional rumors that CYHSY broke up, which kind of made sense because the band is divided between two states with all of the members living in New York except lead singer Alec Ounsworth, who lives in Philadelphia.
Ounsworth, although engaged with the audience, does seem like he's on his own musical island. He's in sync with the band and yet, he stands completely alone, a part from the group, and delivers his songs from an obviously very personal place. Unfortunately, most of the lyrics were indecipherable, mostly because of the space, but the mood and the beat was a cloud of energy that drifted throughout the ballroom.
Ounsworth, who also has a solo career, sounds similar to Talking Heads' frontman David Byrne, at least on some of his recorded material. (Byrne, along with David Bowie, was spotted at some of CYHSY's shows in 2005.) But in person, he does not sound nor emulate Byrne very much at all. Instead, he was slightly reminiscent of Bob Dylan (maybe it was the soulful lyrics and the harmonica playing) and former Milwaukeean Matt Morgan, once a member of the Milwaukee Creative Music Ensemble, who now lives in Portland, Ore.
Highpoints of the show included "Satan Said Dance," "Is This Love," "Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood" and "In This Home On Ice," but arguably the most exciting aspect of the evening was watching a few audience members, every 10 minutes or so during the second half of the show, bum rush the stage to dance with the band.
Eventually, security guards escorted them off the stage, except for those who chose to stage dive off instead. Band members seemed to enjoy the interactions, however, and Guertin said, with a big smile on his face, "I knew I shouldn't have invited so many of my friends to the show."
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
