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The Dreadful Yawns A six-hour drive, a broken-down van and several traffic jams couldn’t put a damper on the spirits of the Dreadful Yawns during their dreadful trip to Philadelphia. Midnight passed before the Cleveland band finally took the stage. It was not evident in any way that the five members were cramped together in a van for nearly six hours prior to their refreshing performance at The Fire. The Yawns handled and hid their frustrations like champs when it came time to showcase their quirky, psych-folk sound to whomever was still around and willing to listen. With the club nearly empty, the Yawns opened their set with a brief dose of feedback. It was clear that the band members were medicating themselves with their melodic and therapeutic music to uplift their spirits and forget the hassle and aggravation they faced on the way to Philly. It was fitting, then, that after the short instrumental opening, the band launched into “Kill Me Now” from this year’s Take Shape. Soon after the sarcastic bittersweet lyrics, the song erupts into a shakedown with feel-good guitar and keyboards. Most songs in the Yawns’ set began with an ambient yet beautiful build-up, followed by a bouncy hoe-down assault that made it nearly impossible not to shake your hips like a total buffoon. Elizabeth Kelly’s angelic vocals cut perfectly through the fuzzy keys, and she shared lead duties with guitarist Ben Gmetro and drummer Chris Russo. Each of the three voices had an entirely different feel—Gmetro’s vocal approach, for example, sounded influenced by Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum—yet made perfect sense when they harmonized. Gmetro and Kelly belted warm vocal harmonies that made you feel as if you were lying in the grass on a warm summer day. Their nursery-rhyme sing-alongs would have sounded a lot fuller had there been a few more people in the audience besides myself and the sound guy. The Dreadful Yawns’ final number, however, was a gem. They ripped through the Pretty Girls Make Graves-like “Queen Of The Jokester,” and you could just picture the crowd doing a jig while Kelly tore through some dance moves on stage. The only disappointment about the performance was the lack of people in attendance to witness the musical excellence on stage. If there is such a thing as karma, the Dreadful Yawns will get the recognition and momentum they deserve for their beautiful, unique sound. When that day comes and the Yawns are as big as Rilo Kiley, the nameless sound guy and I will tell our tale of the intimate set we witnessed to all the yuppie hipsters who’ll claim they knew of the Dreadful Yawns way before the group got its much-deserved musical props. —John Stish |