Let it be known, that due to an extraordinarily tiring week, this review may be a bit slanted.
Unfortunately, I only caught the last couple of songs of Labradford's act ... fortunately enough, they weren't too impressive and I didn't feel like I missed much. While their mellow style was much appreciated, their lack of stage presence was not. I'd probably check them out again though, if they came around.
Helium were a different story; their dark, melodic pop drew more interest from the crowd, including myself. Though they started out a little on the slow side (this was incredibly problematic, due to my aforementioned tiredness), they eventually kicked in and broke out into a few of their stronger numbers. The crowd, though attuned, still weren't really into it, however, which can be a real drag when you're stuck behind a hoard of immobile tall people; this response may also have had something to do with the fact that some freak puked across the middle of the floor. A real distracter. Helium played on and managed to put on an above decent show, and hearing Mary Timony (now blonde) made me remember how some girls just have beautiful voices. In fact, I had really gone to the show to check them out and found them to be far from disappointing.
A pleasant surprise, because I wasn't sure what to expect, Yo La Tengo were amazing. This trio churned out some incredibly beautiful music. While the songs were generally mellow, they varied from haunting guitar-driven melodies to keyboard cranking sounds, both smooth and intense. With Georgia and Ira moving alternately from drums and guitar to keyboard, the diversity of the sound was intriguing, and the interplay of their voices was greatly appreciated; James was pretty cool on the bass to boot. I stayed until my back went numb, and left a satisfied girl.