Yo La Tengo @ East Village Arts Club, Liverpool, 4 December

Oh, Yo La Tengo. So quiet, so fragile, so perfect. You make lines like “sometimes the bad guys come out on top” sound both world-weary and cheerfully fatalistic at the same time. You weave subtle folk murmurs into hushed, heart-stopping power pop. You take decade-old, skin-tinglingly soft ballads like Black to Blue and wring out every last drop of beauty, playing at such low volume that we have to strain our ears to hear it all, and the experience is ultimately more rewarding for the effort that’s demanded of us. This is exhilarating and yet soothing at the same time; one helluva strong cocktail. We surrender to silence.

But wait, you’re not done! So what’s happening now…? OH, YO LA TENGO! So loud, so powerful, so mesmerising! The organ skronk of False Alarm peels sheets off our eardrums, Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind pummels our guts into new shapes with its unrelenting psych muscle… and Sugarcube? Why, it gets us gliding across the floor, dancing with glee as Ira croons gently over the dreamy fuzz-pop melee.

“Is that enough?” you ask over playfully pretty Spectorisms – it really should be, but you continue to give us more, from playing the request of a delighted audience member on the front row (Nothing to Hide) to paying bashful tribute to Liverpool’s musical heritage by strumming sweetly through George Harrison’s Behind That Locked Door (“Not a Beatles cover,” laughs Ira, “that would be pandering.”) Oh, Yo La Tengo, it’s more than enough. [Will Fitzpatrick]