The saying goes, "when life gives you lemons make lemonade." Well the lemons just so happened to be a last minute private party cancelation at Tipitina's, and the lemonade ended up being the year's first Free Friday which featured the incredibly talented Electric Yat Quartet, Natalia Cascante (violin), Amelia Clingman (viola), Harry Hardin (violin), and Daniel Andrews (cello), filling in for Jack Craft, who had a previous engagement with his other band Sweet Crude. They are a unique and energetic string quartet that bring a fresh take to classical, jazz, rock, and pop music. They collaborate frequently with other local musicians. The Tipitina's show featured Jonathan Pretus (drums, guitar, and vocals), Helen Gillet (cello and vocals), Vance Woolf (trumpet), Jenn Howard (vocals), and Mikayla Braun (vocals). The band show highlighted the music of The Beatles and Queen.
Their guest set included: "Yesterday" - Beatles (Mikayla Braun), "We are the Champions" - Queen (Mikayla), "Oh Darling" - The Beatles (Jenn Howard), "Somebody to Love" - Queen (Jenn), "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" - Queen (Jonathan Pretus), "And I Love Her" - The Beatles (Jonathan), "Here Comes the Sun" - The Beatles (Jonathan), "Penny Lane" - The Beatles (Jonathan and Vance Woolf), "Don't Let Me Down" - The Beatles (Helen Gillet solo), "Helter Skelter" - The Beatles (Helen) "Bohemian Rhapsody" - Queen (Everybody)
The instrumentals included, "Eleanor Rigby" - The Beatles, "Killer Queen" - Queen, "For No One" - The Beatles, "Day Tripper" - The Beatles, "When I'm 64" - The Beatles, "Blackbird" - The Beatles, "Bicycle Race" - Queen, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" - The Beatles, "In My Life" - The Beatles, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" - The Beatles, "Friends Will be Friends" - Queen, "I Will" - The Beatles, "You're my Best Friend" - Queen, "Martha My Dear" - The Beatles, "Another One Bites the Dust" - Queen, and "Don't Stop Me Now" - Queen.
It was refreshing going into the evening not entirely knowing what to expect and when the band started off with one of my favorite Beatles tunes, "Eleanor Rigby," I knew the evening was going to be a fun one. The vocalists all shared something completely different when approaching their tunes. Mikayla's vocals were subtle and on point, while Jenn shook the raptors with her boisterous and dynamic voice, and Jonathan and Helen just absorbed the material. Vance was a nice surprise, and his horn was a great compliment to the strings. The evening ended with an all-out assault on the Queen classic "Bohemian Rhapsody." If you were not moving, you were dead. Do yourself a favor and track down the Electronic Yat Quartet. You can see an extensive gallery here.
