Yves Tumor played Roadrunner – 10/5
Kaleidoscopic art-rocker Yves Tumor took over Roadrunner with a diverse cast of support from Crack Cloud, Izzy Spears and Thoom.
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The world of Yves Tumor can be a confounding and mysterious place. The musician born Sean L. Bowie (probably, there seems to be some debate around this) is a master shapeshifter, combining a cosmos of genre reference points from funk, glam and R&B to industrial music, post-punk and hypnagogic pop into a compelling, singular vision whilst maintaining a genuinely cryptic aura. Their latest, the unwieldily-titled Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds), continues a hot-streak of year-end-contender LPs, and brought them to Allston’s Roadrunner last week for a thrillingly unpredictable evening.
In uncommon procedure (for a venue of this size anyway), a trio of distinct openers preceded a set from Tumor that ran til nearly midnight. Thoom’s sultry electro-pop kicked the evening off, leading into an arresting set of grungy experimental hip-hop from Izzy Spears. Canadian collective Crack Cloud played probably the most conventional set of the night, by whatever relative standard that nervy art-punk performed by a band called Crack Cloud could be considered conventional.
Rounding the 10:30 timestamp, Tumor and their ace four-piece band finally took the stage and proceeded to transport the entire room somewhere off-planet. “God is a Circle,” from the new record, led things off in a set that touched on the bulk of that tracklist in addition to plenty of callbacks – a generous 20-plus songs in all.
At my last Yves Tumor show – 2021’s Pitchfork Fest – the band wasted no time getting straight to their hardest-rocking material, making the most of a shortened festival set by slamming the pedal to the floor straightaway. With the whole night at their disposal here, there was much more space for space, with moody and downbeat cuts punctuating ragers like “Gospel for a New Century” – a selection from 2020’s Heaven to a Tortured Mind that stands as their signature song for my money.
Towards the end of the night, us photographers were invited back into the pit for a bit more shooting beyond our standard first-three, a thing which happens basically never. Whether this was intended to allow us more thorough documentary access or simply to fuck with us was not entirely clear, as Tumor soon joined us down there, wrapping a few of us in startling embraces before banishing us away again in time to light up a cig and flick it at guitarist Chris Greatti, who seemed pretty amused by the whole thing. (As was I, for the record).
Speaking of Greatti, he remained the band’s not-so-secret sonic and aesthetic weapon, striking rockstar poses and painting fiery fretwork while playing Tumor’s foil – as any great guitarist/bandleader dynamic ought to go. Bassist Gina Ramirez, who took some potent vocal turns in addition to holding down the rhythm section, also had a distinguished night.
So yes, Tumor’s got a top-notch band behind them, a catalog of dense and mind-bending music and the on- (and off-) stage charisma to tie it all together in a boldly weird package. I came away from the night feeling much like I did right after that Pitchfork set a few years back – that they’re high up on a must-see list among any act touring.
Check out photos from all four of the evening’s sets below.
