Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Yannis & The Yaw is the new project by Yannis Philippakis, the frontman of the British rock band Foals. The first EP, Lagos Paris London, was just released on August 30th and is a collaboration with the African Afrobeat legend Tony Allen. The tracks’ origins date back to 2016, after a two-day session between the two musicians. It was a session that proved fruitful, as the songs were nearly complete after just those two days. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts and the pandemic, they were never able to finish the tracks before Tony Allen’s sudden passing in 2020.
To honor him and share the music with the world, Yannis Philippakis decided to complete the tracks, resulting in the release of the EP. For this project, Yannis assembled a band made up of members who all knew Tony well or had previously worked with him. Now, they are performing three shows in Paris, and London, and the first show is tonight here at Paradiso, Amsterdam.
The support act of the evening is the Dutch band Cape Sleep. Singer Kim Janssen has previously released three albums under his own name but is now continuing with a band and thus the name Cape Sleep. The music sounded dreamy and atmospheric and reminded me somewhat of bands like Bon Iver. In February of this year, their new album Video Days was released, where they also performed the song “Vienna In The Rain,” among others from the new album and older songs.
When Yannis & The Yaw took the stage, you could feel the excitement and anticipation in the crowd. The band kicked off with “Under The Strikes,” which was an excellent opener. When the song ended, it almost felt like everyone had been holding their breath before bursting into applause. They then followed up with their first single, “Walk Through Fire.”
The band, consisting of Yannis Philippakis, Dave Okumu (The Invisible), Vincent Taeger (Poni Hoax), Seye Adelekan (Gorillaz), and Vincent Taurelle (Air), proved to be a great match. As far as I know, the musicians hadn’t played together before, but you couldn’t tell at all. Besides the songs from the EP, there was room for a jam session between the tracks. Even before the concert started, I could sense the audience was curious about what would be played besides the EP, and this was filled with jam sessions. The existing songs also had plenty of room for experimentation.
After “Night Green, Heavy Love,” the band played Tony Allen’s “Afro Disco Beat” and ended the set with my favorite track from the EP, “Rain Can’t Reach Us.” After a short break, they returned to play “Clementine” and finished the evening with “Milk.” “Milk” doesn’t seem to be a song in itself but part of another project Yannis started in 2018. Back then, it was club nights with surprise guests, where live improvised music was created.
What I loved seeing was how, during the songs, each musician was able to bring their own musical background into the performance, giving their own spin to the music. There was also a lot of fun shared between the band members, and the audience seemed to be enjoying themselves as well. It was a relatively short but very memorable evening.
Show Date 10/9/2024
