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MP3 LIVE: Clap, Crackle, and Pop

DIY indie rockers Clap Your Hands Say Yeah escort a packed house in San Francisco through a short but exuberant set of their odd yet familiar brand of pop.

SAN FRANCISCO--Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, one of the most hotly debated bands of the past year, came through San Francisco for two shows last weekend, and for the latter of those nights at least, the debate was over.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at SXSW 2006.

A packed house of 750 jammed into the Great American Music Hall Saturday night to clap their hands, sing along, and yell "Yeah!" in between songs, propelling the broadband buzz band through an exuberant 75-minute set.

The excitement was palpable, and noteworthy both because of the San Francisco indie scene's penchant for skepticism and the inevitable backlash facing a band that became an overnight, largely Internet-driven success last year. The band's self-titled, self-released, self-distributed, and self-promoted debut album has sold more than 200,000 copies.

But the impetus for the crowd's enthusiasm was obvious: Although the band has only that 12-song album and a handful of newly written tracks to draw from, most of those songs are rife with bouncing rhythms, floating melodies, and the kind of catchy pop that only a sonic scrooge could hate.

Graffiti in Brooklyn from which the band drew its name.

From the straightforward "I could dance all night!" verse of "In This Home on Ice" to the rambunctious new song "Satan Said Dance," the band showed off a proclivity for singsongy lyrics that led to just that: sing-alongs. The lyrical love from the crowd came without any provocation and certainly without any help from frontman Alec Ounsworth, whose stage presence is shyly charismatic but whose near-falsetto diction is, well, deliriously warbled.

Ounsworth's voice, a whiny, half-drunk replica of David Byrne's at times, but an incredibly compelling one at that, is likely the most debated aspect of the band.

For some, it's fingernails on blackboards, but for others--including the packed house at the Great American Music Hall--it's the perfect mix of the odd and the familiar.

During "Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood," Philadelphia's Ounsworth was at his best, goading the track's rhythm changes on his guitar and repeating the "child stars..." refrain over and over.

Child stars were a theme of the night, as openers The Brunettes closed their set with "Mary-Kate & Ashley," a tongue-in-cheek tribute of sorts to the Olsen twins, during which each of the band members donned Full House-era Mary-Kate and Ashley masks. It was by far the highlight of an otherwise lackluster set that involved so many instruments (including two xylophones, a horn section, and a banjo) at times that the result was a disjointed cacophony.

But the Auckland, New Zealand-based Brunettes' cute, patchwork musical approach seemed the perfect lead-in to the joyous art-pop of Clap Your Hands.

Despite a slight lull in the middle of the Clappers' set--just as there is in the middle of their album--happy vibes permeated the building. It peaked during the encore, in which Ounsworth lead the band through "Clap Your Hands," the tantalizingly weird and raucous intro track on the album that is equal parts circus and Hare Krishna.

The band seemed energized by the crowd's response. "This has been great--totally better than last night," guitarist Robbie Guertin exclaimed at the end of the show.

The debate about the Internet buzz band of 2005 will likely follow Clap Your Hands throughout the rest of their 30-date run, which concludes at the Coachella festival in late April. But on this night, it was settled.

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MP3 LIVE: Clap, Crackle, and Pop

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