Live Review: YACHT at Studio B [4.16.08]

Love makes people do crazy things. Move halfway across the world, get a conspicuous tattoo of your partners’ name, or maybe adopt a mean-spirited puppy together in hopes of taming it through teamwork and the strength of your love. In the case of the one-man-band YACHT (aka Jona Bechtolt), he simply decided to add his girlfriend to the line up.

Yes, the performance at Studio B was Brooklyn’s first taste of YACHT as a twosome. The news of the lineup change was admittedly met with skepticism on my part. While the pairing of Jona and Khaela Maricich, his female counterpart in the Blow, was an inspired musical match, the original concept of YACHT had such a singular appeal – singular being the key word. A man, his laptop, his beats, his moves. The most compact cavalcade of energy and fun with the ability to get a crowd dancing wildly in a circle way better than that joker Dan Deacon.



In her sparkly dress, new member Claire Evans looks rad. She and Jona certainly compliment one another aesthetically. But after the visual bedazzling wears off, disillusionment sets in – these are the songs I’ve heard before, but there’s another voice in the mix. Those are the smooth dance moves I remember, but there’s two more feet jumping around the stage. The presence of another person feels distracting. I have nothing personal against Ms. Evans – she is quite charming and funny when she addresses the audience (“Clap when your heart tells you to. Don’t let song breaks dictate when you clap,” she told us between numbers,) but the addition of any new member into the mix of YACHT show would be an unwelcome one. If the original formula is a success, why change it?



That aside, Jona and Claire are dancing and sweating up a storm. Jona perfectly executes his signature move in which he mimes the pressing buttons on some sort of large invisible machine. Sometimes he and Claire dance together, and it is obviously adorable. They sing a song in which proclaim, “You can live anywhere you want!” and then proceed to list exactly where: Underwater! In the desert! On the beach!

Unfortunately, the two vocals just don’t seem compatible – they yell out the lyrics simultaneously, not unlike cheerleaders at a pep rally. There’s not enough give and take between the two, and instead, they often seem to be performing in their own version of the same solo show- simultaneously.



The new incarnation of YACHT seems extremely fun for the two members involved, a pleasant activity for the couple to do together - like a trip to the flea market or a weekend camping excursion. Who hasn’t looked at their boyfriend or girlfriend on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and exclaimed, “Let’s start a band!” The only difference is, YACHT already was a band, and a pretty good one. As much as I admire young love and togetherness, I just don’t know that I want to hear a love song introduced with the statement, “I wrote this song about her,” as Jona did, gesturing to his bandmate. I wish the couple all the best in their romance, but as a band, I still wish Jona was flying solo.



[Photos by Mina K]