Yo La Tengo Welcome Luna and More for Neil Young, The Cure and Grateful Dead Covers at San Francisco’s The Fillmore
“Yo La Tengo – Sala Apolo” by https://secure.flickr.com/photos/alterna2/ is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Yo La Tengo landed in San Francisco over the weekend for their three-show New Year’s Eve residency at The Fillmore. On Sunday and Monday night, the storied trio began the year-end residency, accompanied by Dean Wareham’s celebrated indie outfit Luna, with two performances that built on the momentum of their eight-night Hanukkah celebration at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. Both performances included all-cover encores with support from several special guests.
Yo La Tengo set off their New Year’s series on Sunday night with “This Stupid World,” the title track from their acclaimed 2023 studio album, then looked back on their beginnings with the longtime live favorite “Barnaby, Hardly Working.” Other standouts like “Tiny Birds,” “Apology Letter,” “One PM Again,” “Detouring America with Horns,” “Nowhere Near” and “Super Kiwi” brought the band to the set-closing Painful essential “I Heard You Looking.”
Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew tapped Wareham to set off their encore with a cover of Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts’ 2025 single “Big Crime,” which opened night one of the Hanukkah run. After putting their spin on the rousing political anthem, YLT was joined by all the members of Luna for a cover of Ohio Express’ jukebox classic “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy,” followed by a finale of The Cure’s “Friday I’m In Love,” the only song from night one that hadn’t figured into the Hanukkah series, delivered in tribute to the band’s late guitarist and keyboardist Perry Bamonte.
Last night, Yo La Tengo returned to The Fillmore for another 15-track set stacked with an eclectic mix of originals, beginning with 2023’s “Miles Away” and “Tonight’s Episode.” Once again, all of these tracks had emerged over the course of the band’s exhaustive holiday series, but rarities like “I Was the Fool Beside You for Too Long,” “A Worrying Thing” and “Watch Out for Me Ronnie” brought depth to the litany of hits like “Stockholm Syndrome,” “Did I Tell You,” “Sugarcube,” “Double Dare” and the set-closing “Blue Line Swinger.”
Yo La Tengo’s night two encore began with their ‘80s and ‘90s indie peers Hypnolovewheel’s “I Dream of Jeannie,” which they hadn’t covered since October 2021; like the last performance, Monday’s revival featured a guest spot from the fondly remembered band’s Stephen Hunking. Hunking stepped aside to make way for Sloppy Heads’ Ariella Stok, who bolstered YLT’s second treatment to date of the Grateful Dead’s “New Speedway Boogie.” After the Avengers’ Penelope Houston joined to lead the host band’s debut of her own ‘70s punk cut “The American in Me,” Luna stepped up again for a grand finale of Fred Neil’s “Little Bit of Rain.”
Yo La Tengo’s New Year’s Eve residency at San Francisco’s The Fillmore will come to a close with one last show on December 31. Find tickets and more information at yolatengo.com.
