In a sci-fi neon temple, the high priestess of indie sleaze – dressed as every Quality Street at once – flings off her shiny rainbow cowl, spews water 10 feet into the air like a human geyser, raises high a microphone with a unicorn’s tail and yells, in a hearty rock-chick howl: “The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back!”
And not a moment too soon. Ever since singer and future-fashion icon Karen O first skipped across a stage deep-throating a microphone while drunk on champagne, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been among the most brilliant, colourful and riveting live bands on the planet. These three frontrunners of New York’s 2001 indie-rock explosion return for their first London show in four years (their first album in nine years, Cool it Down, is on the way), just as their cultural currency reaches a resurgent peak. Lizzy Goodman’s celebrated oral history of NYC’s early Noughties rock community, Meet Me in the Bathroom, is set for a sister-piece documentary. The internet is abuzz with talk of “indie sleaze”, a new name for an old scene that’s being bestowed upon the next generation of lusty alt-poppers such as Wet Leg, Confidence Man, and Jockstrap. Two decades on, aged 43, Karen O is a cutting-edge scene queen once more.
