eMusic Review 0
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah had something to prove when they hit the live circuit in 2007. Their self-released, self-titled debut made them underground darlings in 2005, but their less instantly winning follow-up, 2007's Some Loud Thunder left some fans scratching their heads. This recording, from Clap Your Hands 'tour-ending Lollapalooza appearance finds them emerging from the experience with confidence intact.
Drawing democratically from both of the band's albums, Live At Lollapalooza 2007 emphasizes the biting, rhythmic guitar lines that dominated Thunder, an approach that improves in a live setting. The Thunder tracks punch through in a way they never quite managed on the album and the songs from the debut album benefit from being allowed to stretch out. The only drawback: While singer Alec Ounsworth sheds some of the David Byrne-isms that led some to dub him a copycat, he occasionally picks up some new, unpleasantly trilly tics. The crowd of hardened fans and drunken festivalgoers don't seem to mind, though, and the set suggests the band will continue to make interesting noise for a while.
