Photo: Cassie Doumas

Yardsale
Jan. 30
Vernon Club

Yardsale’s current lineup is by far the largest and tightest they’ve had, which you need to be if you open with The Band’s “Don’t Do It.” They followed with two cuts of Yardsale’s previous album This Week, “Last To Know” and “While She Sleeps.” I’d only seen them once before, at an outdoor block party where the sound was mostly lost to passing traffic and the wind. Damn, this band has energy. They play like they have something to prove, and the first three songs proved to be a warm-up when second vocalist Kirk Kiefer announced they will play their new album, Knock Alley West, in its entirety, “Because that’s what you’re supposed to do at these things, right?”

“Until I Can’t Remember” is an uptempo swing that is ’60s-era Rolling Stones with a David Byrne-style yelp on the hook. Colin Garcia’s drums drive the song, while the two-piece horn section of Melanie Dillman and Elmer White provide depth and color. Why every band in this town doesn’t have a horn section is beyond me. Midway through comes the centerpiece and strongest cut of the night, the anthemic “Mississippi’s Flooding,” Yardsale’s “Purple Rain.” Every concert they do from this point on should close with this song, complete with lighters-in-the-air, 15 minutes-and-everybody-gets-a-solo fervor. Chris Scott’s lead guitar makes nearly every face in the room a “funk face” (Look at pictures of your favorite guitarists mid-solo. That’s the funk face.) as the band drives you higher and higher until the interplay of guitar and drum end the song on an abrupt downbeat. Exhale.

Speaking of “Higher,” as the album’s last note fades off the stage, and the thank yous and applause die down, the band reaches down for one more: the completely unexpected Sly & The Family Stone classic “I Want To Take You Higher.” This gets the people out of their seats. If I had any complaints about the show at all, it was the presence of the chairs around the stage. This band is made for dancing. They swing, and for far too much of the show, the crowd was resting their feet, with only the occasional brave soul bounding past the front row to do a few steps. Take those chairs away, and you’re going to have a full-on square-dance.

Yardsale is playing several shows over the next few weeks in support of Knock Alley. Make sure you catch at least one. Don’t be surprised if this is not the next band to blow up outside our borders. —Damien McPherson