Bands get audiences dancing to their percussion
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah performed at the Boulder Theater Saturday night. The show started at 10:30 and went on until 2 a.m.
The band opened with the song “Gimme Some Salt.” When “This Home on Ice” came around the crowd welcomed it was some head banging.
Lee Sargent, guitarist, keyboard player and backup vocalist, and his brother Tyler Sargent, bass player and backing vocals for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, gave an interview as well as a spectacular show.
“The name of the band came from a piece of graffiti art that was on a brick wall in Brooklyn,” Lee said. “It was really big, it took up half a block. Tyler and Alec were driving around before our first show and we needed a name and they saw (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah).
“Usually (Alec) has the lyrics and the vocal melody and basic chords on the guitar, and then everything else comes together,” Lee continued. “We have some songs here and there where the instruments are mapped out and go along with it, and it works.” Alec plays guitar and sings vocals for CYHSY.
Architecture in Helsinki and members of Takka Takka joined Clap Your Hands Say Yeah during the show for a song with a mishmash of percussion instruments.
Toward the end of the show a girl flung herself onto the stage and embraced Tyler Sargent in a hug. The security guard quickly removed her from the stage.
“Let me think here. It was ‘bleepin’ awesome,” said JT Hammett, a sophomore film and theater major. “Like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
The band ended its set with “Clap Your Hands.”
“‘Clap Your Hands’ the song is a nice introduction to our first album,” said Tyler.
“They were great,” said Danielle Solomon, a junior French and international affairs major. “Everyone was into it the entire time. They bought the audience.”
Architecture in Helsinki opened for CHYSY. This band is all about mixing and matching instruments with band members. Each person was jumping around finding a new instrument to play, including bongos.
“Boulder is the f—ing greatest city,” said Cameron Bird, lead male vocals for Architecture in Helsinki, during a music break.
The band involved the crowd through chanting choruses and simple percussion.
“They are intense,” said Nathan Tapp, a sophomore film and pre-journalism major.
Architecture in Helsinki was not shy. The band used every inch of the stage. Bird even fell onto his keyboard after their final song and onto the embracing crowd.
“We saw some prairie dogs today,” Bird said during a musical break. “Holy s–t.”
The opening band for the show was Takka Takka who revved up the students with a harmonica, English-rock vocals and intense guitar.
“I think we had a little too much to drink,” said Gabe Levine, singer and guitarist for Takka Takka.
The guitarist for Takka Takka was wearing a shirt that said “I.D.” on it. After tonight’s show, people will have an easy time identifying this band with its easy-to-clap-to jams.