Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ Birmingham Academy

Feb 6 2007 By Diane Parkes, Birmingham Mail

IT IS as much an invitation as a band name so no surprises that the audience was keen to clap along to the quirky tunes of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

Now on their second album the foursome, from Brooklyn, New York, played to a busy, but not packed, Academy. But what the audience lacked in numbers they made up for in enthusiasm.

There was also plenty of enthusiasm on stage where singer and songwriter Alec Ounsworth thanked us all for turning out to hear them and led the band through works from the two albums, the eponymous Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the recent Some Loud Thunder.

Comparisons with the Talking Heads quickly went out of the window as, although Ounsworth's vocals are reminiscent of David Byrne, the band's live musical sound is nothing like the 80s wonders.

Instead we were given a string of whimsical tracks such as Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood and Gimme Some Salt from Clap Your Hands and new tracks Satan Said Dance and Some Loud Thunder.

A two-track encore saw the return of support bands Elvis Perkins and the hotly-tipped Cold War Kids for a crazed ensemble.