Photo Credit: Owen Ela

Can an experimental musical style bring people, if not community, together? Genre-shifting art pop group Tune-Yards (stylized as tUnE-yArDs) delivered an eccentrically delightful performance at The Bellwether on June 11^th, 2025. This stop in Los Angeles was part of their 2025 tour, celebrating the recent release of their sixth studio album, Better Dreaming.

The experimental musical style of Tune-Yards was, strangely enough, filled with dynamism and extraordinariness – with inventive singer-songwriter, ukulelist and percussionist Merrill Garbus and skillfully precise bassist Nate Brenner. As the set included both their 19-year-long career-defining works, with hip songs from the latest album, Tune-Yards reminded the audience about the importance of enjoying the sheer joy of music – especially with their rhythmic and melodic mixtures of afrobeat, lo-fi, pop and rock as well as electronic music.

As the perfect opener for Tune-Yards, jazz and hip-hop musician Kassa Overall and his incredibly talented band members delivered a quirky yet pleasant performance for the audience. Along with Kassa Overall’s rhythmic drumming and rapping, the disharmonic sound created by his band members – including an electronic pianist playing synth-wave chords, a flutist and a double bassist playing jazz melodies and a multi-percussionist playing hip-hop beats – gave the audience a weird yet satisfying mixture of sound. Then, after Kassa Overall’s melodically and rhythmically rebellious performance, Tune-Yards appeared on the stage with their down-to-earth mannerisms.

The duo’s stage outfit was also unequivocally individualistic, perhaps reminiscent of artists from the counterculture era in the 70s – with Brenner wearing a dashingly printed graphic button-up shirt, along with Garbus wearing a rouge-colored blazer and a balloon skirt. As Tune-Yards began performing the first song of their set, “Heartbreak,” the audience immediately realized how unusually exceptional the night at The Bellwether was going to be – with Brenner constantly using different functions under the amp to distort his bass riffs, along with Garbus using a live looping pedal to harmonically layer her remarkable vocal ability while playing either her ukulele riffs or intricate percussion beats.

Every time Tune-Yards alternated their set with a different song, the entirety of the genre, mood, rhythm and melodies took a drastic shift as well. Some of the unexplainably satisfying highlights included the performance of an ominous punk bass riff with afrobeat rhythmic song, “Swarm,” an uplifting pop and afrobeat song, “How Big Is The Rainbow?,” as well as a hypnotically melodic fan-favorite song,”Bizness.” On top of this, Garbus’ vocal harmony with the live loop pedal instrument felt like a ritualistic practice – yet it was an experimentation that invited the audience to groove along with the music.

Fascinatingly, Tune-Yards’ performance at The Bellwether evoked the spirit of counterculture era artists – not only through their bold and experimental style of music but also with the lyrics from their setlist commenting on societal, racial and gender norms. Yet above all, Tune-Yards’ performance at The Bellwether was perhaps a testament to bringing people and community together through the power of music. That, despite the experimental approach, is the power of music and ultimately, art.

Setlist:

1. Heartbreak
2. My Country
3. Swarm
4. Look at Your Hands
5. Never Look Back
6. How Big Is The Rainbow?
7. Gangsta
8. Water Fountain
9. Better Dreaming
10. hypnotized
11. Bizness
12. Sanctuary
13. Powa
14. Limelight