Yo La Tengo Finds Success in Consistency

Long before “American Beauty” started its cruise toward the Oscars, art exploring the thin line separating suburban stability from stagnation was a well-established genre. Yet Yo La Tengo, a veteran trio from Hoboken, N.J., featuring married couple Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, added its own twists to the terrain Monday at the El Rey Theatre.

The notion was impressionistically embodied in the opening music, a hushed, 10-plus-minute piece that, with singer-guitarist Kaplan’s effects and feedback, droned like a pastel Pink Floyd. Only occasionally did the band (also featuring bassist James McNew and two augmenting musicians) break the subdued mix, which drew on the softer sides of the Velvet Underground and electro-poppers Stereolab. Thematically, too, Kaplan and Hubley (who sings and plays drums) examined the anguish of stability, reflecting perhaps their own life together and certainly the band’s 15-year alt-rock history--a model of consistency bordering on complacency.

Often it was easy to interpret an undercurrent of sadness, but both career-wise--with an acclaimed new album (“And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out”) in stores and an invigorated buzz evident in the enthusiastic crowd--and personally it’s a happy ending.

When a fan yelled, “We love you, Georgia,” Kaplan beamed and said, “Sorry, she’s taken”--setting a mood accented by goofy choreography for KC & the Sunshine Band’s “You Can Have It All” and celebratory encores including Gary Lewis’ buoyant ‘60s hit “Count Me In” and the Ramones’ “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker.”