yeah yeah yeahs at bowery ballroom

i know i'm a little late on this, but please bear with me. i went to see the yeah yeah yeahs at bowery ballroom last week. it was the first of two sold out nights at bowery ballroom, and i hadn't seen the yyys since summerstage in central park with devo and stellastarr*, soaking in the damp, grey rain. as melody nelson has stated, crowd energy and interaction with the band is key at a yyys show... but so is the quality of the band's performance and the strength of their set. and while it is admittedly harder to get into new songs, if the songs are exceptional, you'll still like and remember them afterwards. so which of the new songs do i remember? only the single, "gold lion." now that's a damn good catchy song. the rest were so-so, mostly due to the fact that i didn't think karen emoted or growled the songs with as much heart and spunk as she used to. i didn't think her vocals connected with the songs, and that really affected how i perceived the new tunes. in fact, she giggled quite a bit while singing... like she wasn't taking it all very seriously. of course it's rock and roll, but if a comedian laughs while they're delivering a punch line, it's not as funny. it's all about the delivery and the punch! but maybe after i listen to the recorded versions, i will like the new songs better? gosh, i hope so. also, did anyone else think it was a little robotic for nick zinner to pull out the camera and snap the audience shot? is he doing another book of yyys mania? and unfortunately, because of a personal matter, i wasn't able to get to the show in time to see blood on the wall. bummer. i really wanted to check them out.