Clap Your Hands Say Yeah bring the Thunder to SF

The Rickshaw Stop is not the biggest venue. It can hold 400 people probably, if you try hard enough, but it doesn’t seem like the place you’d find a band that’s been around for the past 14 years, already on a second 10 year anniversary tour, this time for their sophomore album. But for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, size never really meant much to them anyway: not in a complacent way, but more in the sense of intimacy; the two foot stage does very little in separating the music from the crowd.

In true PopScene fashion, the first face I see when I enter the SF venue is their resident DJ Aaron Axelsen, continuing to live out his dreams as he entertains the drunk crowd to his climax, this time playing songs by Neutral Milk Hotel and once again “Heartbeats” by The Knife (which seems to be a crowd favorite), all against projections of old Beatles clips and movies from the 70s. An hour after doors opened, Steady Holiday came out to open the show. The project of Dre Babinski, the music flowed so fluidly through the venue, as she hit every note and chord at the perfect points. All alone, with just her guitar and occasionally violin, Babinski commanded the stage with just the sound of her voice and the thermos she sipped from in between songs. But the Rickshaw Stop isn’t always the best place to enjoy music, and amid the loud chatter from the crowd, Babinski stopped in the middle of her last song to ask, “You guys having a nice time?” before finishing her set and stepping back into the dark.

In 2015, CYHSY embarked on a North American tour for the 10th anniversary of their freshman self-titled album (2005). This time around, they came in support of the 10 year anniversary of their second album, Some Loud Thunder (2007) (which, technically, was released 11 years ago, but we’ll let it slide). But the only original member of the band left is lead singer/songwriter/founder Alec Ounsworth, who filled the stage with his touring band. But for a group that’s lost 80% of its members over time, it feels like Ounsworth hasn’t missed a step.

After playing the first two songs of the set, Ounsworth looks out to the crowd and asks, “Everyone knows Thunder right? Just double checking.” The crowd at the Rickshaw is always incredibly age diverse, but more so this night than usual: married couples with fully greyed hair were interspersed between 20-somethings with scraggly beards and sweaters tied around their waists. The energy was low but focused – this wasn’t a mosh-pit kinda concert, more like a personal brooding area. The most energized the crowd got was during “Emily Jean Stock,” when Ounsworth crooned “I think it’s the Chinese New Year / Of this I’m fairly clear,” as someone in back screamed “Happy lunar new year!”

Since the tour did promise to be mainly about Some Loud Thunder, the group played the whole album; the whole album. After playing a two minute interlude off of the LP, Ounsworth got to the mic to say, “I said we’re gonna play all of it, I mean all of it.” But the crowd didn’t seem to mind, seemed even more psyched if possible. Even though the energy levels weren’t incredibly high, it was still obvious that almost every person in that room wanted to be there. The band did include some songs from their other albums, as well, like “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth” off of their self-titled album.

While it may seem odd that after all this time, CYHSY is still only playing a barely sold out Rickshaw Stop show, in some way, it makes perfect sense. It’s not about a lack of growth or progress over the past 10 or whatever years; it seems almost by design, not like they’re going through the regular motions of every other band (you know, Starline to Fillmore to Warfield to Bill Graham or whatever that path is), they’re doing this on purpose, to constantly have and create that intimate environment that doesn’t so blatantly separate artist and fan. Ounsworth is no stranger to this: he’s been doing “Living Room Shows” for years now, where fans can host him at their home for him to perform a short acoustic set. It’s no big fancy show, no backing band, not even a sound system, just the shortest path between artist and fan, something CYHSY do very, very well.

Even though it’s been over 14 years, two breakups and a reunion, I don’t see Ounsworth slowing down anytime soon. If you didn’t get to chance to see them now, by their trajectory, they’ll probably be back in 3 years on their Hysterical tour.