Yeah Yeah Yeahs Were Joined By Japanese Breakfast And The Linda Lindas For An Ecstatic ’80s Cover

Last night in Los Angeles, Yeah Yeah Yeahs played the last of their mere three scheduled shows in the US this year. The band’s first album in nearly a decade, Cool It Down, came out last Friday and it’s been a welcome return for the New York trio of Karen O, Nick Zinner, and Brian Chase. Following a headlining performance last month at Chicago’s Riot Fest and then a sold out appearance at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium, Yeah Yeah Yeahs took to the stage at the glorious Hollywood Bowl with openers Japanese Breakfast and The Linda Lindas.

There’s nary a performer out there quite like singer Karen O and the elation of a long layoff was on full display at the Bowl. The Linda Lindas showed their feisty, youthful bravado to open the evening, before Japanese Breakfast crushed once again on the heels of last year’s smash Jubilee. But it was a moment during the Yeah Yeah Yeahs encore that made for an especially ecstatic moment and a triumph for the rise of Asian-American women in indie rock.

To begin their two-song encore, Karen O welcomed back up Japanese Breakfast and The Linda Lindas on stage to sing a glowing, rowdy, celebratory cover of Kim Wilde’s 1981 bop, “Kids In America.” And this was more than just a “grab the mic and everybody sing” on-stage cover. There must’ve been six guitarists on stage and damn near a dozen vocalists. It was a sweet moment to not only culminate a rare set of live shows from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but also to celebrate the influx of AAPI women in rock and roll.

Watch a clip of the performance above.