Yo La Tengo, ABC, Glasgow

In spite of the freezing sleet, some tourists outside the grand façade of the ABC are asking if it’s still a cinema and if the name on the marquee is a Spanish film. When told that this is tonight’s band, they ask what they sound like. Where to start? It’s hard to answer without a truck load of musical reference points. What do Yo La Tengo sound like? Well vaguely like a lot of things, but truly only like themselves.

In a move indicative of their singularity, YLT forego a support band, instead playing two sets. A seated, quieter segment provides a gentle start. It’s especially well geared to tracks from recent album ‘Fade’. Proceedings begin with ‘Ohm’, a Hare Krishna shuffle funk offsetting the lyric, “Sometimes the bad guys come out on top / Sometimes the good guys lose.” The whispered harmonies are mellow, breathy lullabies, reassuring mantras. The audience remain in rapt silence throughout. The emotional sincerity of songs like ‘The Point of It’, a soft resignation to the inevitability of aging, steer the band away from sounding twee.

The quiet portion of the show closes with ‘Nowhere Near’ and some increasingly fuzzy electric guitar from Ira Kaplan, leading into louder territory. The trance-inducing bass and soothing vocal harmonies highlight the deceptive simplicity that so many bands try to replicate. What separates Yo La Tengo from their imitators is their joy in doing an ostensibly simple thing effortlessly well.

For the second half we’re promised “a different dynamic”; when the band return Georgia Hubley plays bass and James McNew has swapped to drums, while Kaplan shakes maracas and plays keyboards. ‘Stupid Things’, an archetypal YLT tune, is amped up from its drowsy ‘Fade’ incarnation, Hubley returns to the drums and McNew takes vocals in a Neil Young falsetto direction on ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ and ‘Mr Tough’. ‘Is That Enough’, a musically buoyant number from ‘Fade’, demonstrates the consistency of the song writing in the band’s 30th year together. The louder stuff feels less compelling after the intimacy of the quiet set, but it flows effectively.

A reprise of ‘Ohm’ proves that Yo La Tengo are capable of being extraordinary, “Resisting the flow,” its chant draws you in. Kaplan swings his guitar to achieve distortion but there is no rage in it, just the satisfaction of a job well done. Stretching the capabilities of the instrument, stretching the song into a repetitive reverie, the solid rhythm leaves him free to roam on top.

A request prompts ‘Season Of The Shark’ for the encore; electric piano returning delicacy to the dynamic. The Seeds ‘Can’t Seem To Make You Mine’, as covered by Alex Chilton, is dedicated to absent Glasgow friends Teenage Fanclub and then Stephen Pastel is summoned to the stage for a characteristically lo-fi take on Mike Nesmith’s ‘Different Drum.’ In awe of his Scottish musical peer, Kaplan declines to follow and Hubley takes vocal duties for restrained closer ‘Tom Courtney’.

Yo La Tengo provide a blueprint for an enduring career that many other bands wish to emulate and a dependability that only a few bands manage to retain.