Brooklyn-based indie-rockers Yeasayer brought their unique brand of harmonic rock mixed with psychedelic melodies and electro beats to Toronto, performing to the sold out crowd at Phoenix Concert Theatre. The show was part of the band’s final tour before they return to the recording studio to begin work on a new album. Throughout the set, Yeasayer masterfully weaved tracks from both of their full-length albums, All Hour Cymbals and Odd Blood.

Yeasayer opened with the single “Madder Red,” which introduced a marvelous light show that dazzled throughout the set and served as perfect visual accompaniment to the music. The stage was backed by two huge offset light screens that projected an array of images from sound waves, to beehives, to labyrinths, to crystallizing snowflakes that perfectly matched the emotional swing of the music. The whole effect left the crowd in awe and came close to distorting reality by overwhelming the senses in a mystic fashion.

The most intriguing part of the show came when Yeasayer delivered new material that was being worked on as part of their as-of-yet unrecorded album. Each of these songs came off with a complete change in pace from the psychedelic indie-folk of “Odd Blood” and came out with a heavy ’80s rock sound that straddled the line between emotive acts like Joy Division and the New Wave sound of Depeche Mode, all while keeping Yeasayer’s melodic sensibilities. The new songs Yeasayer played showed a completely different sound from what fans would expect, with less of an emphasis placed on the electronic elements and more placed on the bass lines and melodic guitar work.

The high points of the set came with the older material off All Hour Cymbals, with “O.N.E.” garnering a huge swell of emotion from the entire venue. This swell was matched only by the stunning “2080,” which closed out the encore.

The overall feeling of the show — from the note-perfect songs, to the fabulous light show that played on the emotions of the music — was simply that of a band wise beyond its years in stagecraft and performance. This set did what few bands can do outside of a studio setting — it added a lushness to the music that does not exist in recorded media, and must be seen to be believed.