PHOTOS BY NESTOR DIAZ

U Street denizens (and a few of their parents who had probably heard about the band on NPR) waited in vain in the biting cold last night (Jan. 16) with hopes of scoring tickets to see Yeasayer, currently touring with MGMT, play a sold-out show at the tiny backstage of Black Cat. And if the key to rock'n'roll music is the honest interaction between artist and audience, then this show could have done no better for the lucky few who made it in.

With dead flowers adorning the overhead lights, the scenester crowd swelled against the barely-there stage while Chris Keating crouched and jittered like a human Richter scale as if he was actually attached to the electronics on-stage. The livewire frontman was only the most obvious manifestation of how plugged in to the music the Brooklyn-based outfit was, though. The entire band became one beautifully unhinged rhythm section, flailing about as physical reflections of their frenetic sounds found on their debut LP, All Hour Cymbals. With tunes like eerie vocal wonder "No Need to Worry" and monster single "2080" not-so-lightly surveying some future apocalypses (personal and universal), the beat backed something foreboding. Rhythm and blues in its most cosmic sense -- this was maximum R&B. Who knew the universe teetering on the edge of oblivion could sound this fun?

We asked: Yeasayer has gotten a lot of attention for drawing from African and religious music traditions. What other neglected musical genres would you like to see bands begin to incorporate in to their music?

Name: Lindsay Pitts
Age: 22
Hometown: Woodbridge, VA
Occupation: Musician
"Japanese gamelan music. I was trying to think of the most random type of music."

Name: Cliff Usher
Age: 22
Hometown: Vienna, VA
Occupation: Musician
"I'd like to see more psychedelia. Our whole world is headed for a change in consciousness, like in the '60s."

Name: Louisa Kimmins
Age: 16
Hometown: Poolesville, MD
Occupation: Student
"Maybe Buddhist trance. I'm really in to the whole synthesizer thing."

Name: Star Silva
Age: 24
Hometown: Washington, DC
Occupation: Doer
"Stuff like The Rhythm of the Saints by Paul Simon and Popol Vuh soundtracks in Werner Herzog films."

Name: Sophie Cantero
Age: 16
Hometown: Poolesville, MD
Occupation: Student
"African, because I think it's really cool, with the drums, and the beat of it."

Name: Michael Terzano
Age: 23
Hometown: Washington, DC
Occupation: Artist
"Any sort of music you can dance to. I don't fucking care what it is."

Name: Eric Powell
Age: 23
Hometown: Beijing, China
Occupation: Artist
"The source material is irrelevant, it's the arrangement."

Name: Colin Loughlin
Age: 24
Hometown: Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland
Occupation: Freelance photographer
"Irish folk, some fiddle and shit, because I'm from Ireland. A little sitar, too."

Yeasayer frontman Chris Keating / Photo by Nestor Diaz

Guitarist Anand Wilder / Photo by Nestor Diaz

Bassist Ira Wolf Tuton / Photo by Nestor Diaz

MGMT / Photo by Nestor Diaz