Yo La Tengo At Northampton's Academy Of Music - ACADEMY OF MUSIC

By JOHN ADAMIAN
Special To The Courant

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Now that The Roots have demonstrated that they can be the house band for “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” and Reggie Watts is helping supply music for “The Late Late Show,” perhaps it’s time for someone to make Yo La Tengo the backing band for some hip, late-night variety show.

The fiercely eclectic New Jersey indie rock band is an institution at this point, having formed in 1984. And over those years, in addition to releasing a ton of original music, the band has covered everyone from the Beach Boys to The Who to the Eurythmics to Bob Dylan to Billy Joel to Brian Eno to Sun Ra to ultra-obscurities like Rodd Keith.

YLT’s members know how to get weird, but they are serious students of the pop song and its compressed pleasures. So Northampton’s ornate Academy of Music is a fitting place to see this venerable act. In addition to all the band’s other achievements, Yo La Tengo is also in the running for having one of the best record titles of all time with 2006’s “I Am Not Afraid of You And I Will Beat Your Ass.”

Yo La Tengo performs at the Academy of Music, 474 Main St., Northampton, Mass., at 7:30 p.m. April 7.  Tickets are $25 to $35. Information: 413-584-9032 andacademyofmusictheatre.com.

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