Yo La Tengo performs at The Chapel in San Francisco on May 9, 2025. Jane Hu/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO — “Good evening, everyone. We’re setting up shop here for the better part of five days,” Yo La Tengo guitarist Ira Kaplan announced five songs into the band’s nearly three-hour concert on Friday at The Chapel. The alternative rock trio from Hoboken, New Jersey delivered a pair of very different sets at their first of four shows.

Much of the band’s first set was played at such modest volume that clanging bottles and audience chatter became atmospheric musical elements in the 10 or so songs that spanned the band’s 40-year career. Kaplan strummed an acoustic guitar and drummer Georgia Hubley played with mallets, creating a subdued musical mix that topped out at around 85 decibels, about as loud as your vacuum cleaner at home.

Opening with “Until It Happens” from 2023 album This Stupid World, Kaplan sang, “Prepare to die/ Prepare yourself while there’s still time/ It’s simple to do/ And then it happens to you.”

Gradually, the band increased the volume, with Hubley offering up a slightly fuller drumbeat and Kaplan delivering a delicate guitar solo on “Pablo and Andrea,” from 1995’s Electr-O-Pura. The band members also alternated vocal duties and changed instruments as the set continued. Bassist James McNew picked up a 12-string acoustic for the band’s cover of New Zealand musician Peter Gutteridge’s “Gentle Hour.” Kaplan played keyboards on the cover, while McNew sang the song’s delicate vocals.

“It’s such a pleasure to touch your skin/ To touch your skin/ It’s such a pleasure to touch your heart/ To touch your heart/ I can hardly wait,” McNew sang over a gentle throb.

Yo La Tengo performs at The Chapel in San Francisco on May 9, 2025.

Drummer Hubley sang “Tears Are in Your Eyes,” from 2020 album We Have Amnesia, evoking cheers from the crowd after a very warm day in the Bay Area with the lyric,”You tell me summer’s here.”

With McNew and Hubley in button-down shirts and Kaplan in a simple striped T-shirt, the band looked much more like a trio of community college teachers than influential musical experimenters.

By the end of the first set, the sound levels had reached 95 decibels, or about as loud as a motorcycle. When the band reappeared after a short intermission, the music was noticeably louder, and the second set featured longer and more improvisational performances. The crowd cheered to the opening bass line of “Little Eyes,” from 2003 EP Summer Sun. Hubley sang the tune while keeping a propulsive motorik-style beat. Kaplan provided some dissonant organ soloing during a long jam on “Out the Window” from 1992’s May I Sing With Me.

Toward the end of the marathon concert, the band was joined by the two DJs who had warmed up the crowd earlier in the evening. Charlie Saufley picked up a guitar and Meg Baird sat at a snare drum near the center of the stage, as the five musicians played a long jam that eventually devolved into ferocious guitar noise. The pair returned with the band for an encore that included a cover of the The Grateful Dead’s “The Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion).”

Follow Jane Hu at Instagram.com/plainjane.