WQHS-The Blog — Rachael Yamagata @ World Cafe Live (10/31)

Rachael Yamagata @ World Cafe Live (10/31)

“I’ve been wanting to write a song like ‘Stick Around’ for a while now. I wanted to write a song you could have sex to. And I want to hear about it when you do…so post on my Facebook wall about it. It would make my day!”

The Rachael Yamagata I saw live on Halloween night at World Café Life was far from what I imagined. On first listen her albums give you an image of a slightly rough-around-the-edges piano player who writes striking songs about broken hearts, most often her own. While Yamagata certainly isn’t afraid to put her life and her troubles on spotlight for the world to see, she is so much more than a singer-songwriter sweetheart– she’s and incredibly hilarious and down to earth individual.

She opened her set that night with the pounding chords of “Even If I Don’t.” While most of the small Monday night crowd didn’t recognize this opening track off her latest album Chesapeake, it’s nevertheless an upbeat crowd pleaser that immediately drew in those who were new to Yamagata. Though she is known for her ability to capture a broken heart, her newest album seeks out happier and sunnier tones. It’s a change that, while surprising to many listeners, matches up very well with the Yamagata that I was expecting to see. She oscillated between joking about sex and her rejection from Harvard as a teenager, to musing mournfully on her tumultuous love affairs and lack of direction in life. Every man in the audience wanted to heal her broken heart and every woman wanted to cry with her about it, yet by the end of the show, I think we all simply wanted to share a few beers with her and tell a few of our favorite jokes. As in her music, she blurred the line between confidant and performer so effortlessly that I almost envied her unrehearsed ability to draw us all in.

Chesapeake seems to reflect Yamagata’s movement on towards owning herself and her music, instead of admitting to her heartbreaks and failures. The album is self-released and an obvious departure from her sophomore album with Warner Bros. Records, Elephants…Teeth Sinking In, which many felt departed from her first record Happenstance. Yamagata clearly means to start anew – on Chesapeake she pays homage to her infamous broken-hearted ballads with songs like “You Won’t Let Me,” but she prefers to win us over with songs like “Saturday Morning,” which she described in concert as a musing on the happiness that comes from lying in bed with someone you love. Though the show was littered with old favorites, to which Yamagata’s loyal fan base (myself included) were happy to sing along, the main weight of her show was on promoting her new music. Nevertheless, a particular highlight was Yamagata’s rendition of “Starlight,” which featured a departure from her normal dependency on piano and showcased the talents of her band, and in particular her guitarist.

But I don’t think Yamagata, or her devoted audience at the World Café Live that night, were quite convinced of this change. She seemed hesitant in some cases to play the songs she knew the audience was craving, particularly those off of Happenstance. When she did resign herself to them, her performances were at their most resonant. Songs from Elephants…Teeth Sinking were conspicuously absent, but when she played its title track, we were treated to a Yamagata of two years ago, much more somber and self-reflective. Her joking and sunny disposition was certainly something to behold, but she resonated with us most when she spoke openly of being lost and not knowing the right way forward. I think everyone, particularly a senior close to graduating like myself, related most to the woman on stage who has used her career to turn this sense of hopelessness into the simple lyrics and resonating piano chords of her first album.

No one left that Yamagata’s show that night without feeling a little bit closer to her, a reaction that the yearning and open-faced style of her music can’t help but inspire in an audience. She is as open and frank in person as she is on her records, something that is refreshing to see on a stage. When she ended with the slow piano chords and rough voice of “Reason Why,” the entire room huddled closer to the stage and with each other. For all that she is aimless, her music has a striking ability to draw together. If anything, Chesapeake is evidence that she still has a lot of searching to do, but then don’t we all?

- Jessica Sutro, Live From a London Kitchen (Saturdays from 4-6 pm @ WQHS.org)