words by Steven Ashford | photos by Shannon Claire
A whole lot of love swept through Lincoln this past Valentine's Day. The Bourbon Theatre was graced with the presence of YACHT, an electronic rock duo hailing from Portland, by way of Los Angeles, by way of Marfa, Texas.
Several bunches of Valentine's balloons floated about the stage, and colorful construction paper heart cutouts hung along the front. Some serious YACHT love was in the air.
YACHT played alongside a full band, which is now a regular occurrence for their live shows. This allowed the sound to be much more authentic and full instead of using recordings or overdubs of their tracks.
The front couple of the band, Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans, tried to make the separation between them and the audience as minimal as possible by jumping into the crowd to sing and dance along with fans on the main floor to songs such as "I'm In Love With A Ripper." There was also a little time for a Q&A session between the audience and the band, which was a unique and nice gesture for a band of their caliber. I didn't leave feeling as if I were the third wheel on a cheap date. It was an intimate and honest performance.
The microphones became more or less of a prop for both Bechtolt and Evans as they would pretend to use the phone and the cord as drum sticks, whips, lassos, and even syringes and nooses. The band simulated the uses of other instruments that somewhat resemble a microphone, too.
We were also given a bit of a geography lesson when YACHT blasted a large map of the continental United States on the massive backdrop screen behind them and pinpointed the origins of YACHT: Portland, L.A. and Marfa. It vaguely resembled a triangle, which is the band's symbol. I don't remember exactly what was said about those three sectors, but I'm sure it was strange.
As the show wrapped up, YACHT gave their peace offering by singing, "If we build our utopia, would you come and stay?" during their encore performance of the title track of their album, Shangra-La. With that, the clock was well past midnight, and the trials and tribulations of Valentine's Day were over. Phew, that was a close one.
Photo slideshow
Note: Bad Speler, Spence, Powerful Science and Jeffrey Jerusalem opened for YACHT and are featured in the slideshow below chronologically.
Steven Ashford is a Hear Nebraska contributor. He's in love with a ripper. Reach him at stevena@hearnebraska.org.