Lincoln Hall sits squarely in the center of a bustling college campus and feels like a refuge from those who frat hard in Lincoln Park. It’s a dimly-lit, reasonably intimate venue where the best seat in the house is at the foot of the stage. Monday night, just after 8 p.m., Brooklyn trio Young Magic unassumingly took the stage and went on to illuminate the space with moody, powerful vocals, vibrant, bounding percussion and a screen flush with elaborate, engaging images, including a particularly riveting sequence featuring whirling dervishes.

Lead vocalist Melati Malay possessed an enviable sophistication, with a look akin to a grown up Lydia from Beetlejuice, in the hippest way possible. Similar to the myriad textiles seen draped over set pieces, the multi-layering of samples from global influences and recordings, combined with a soaring, yet calm and controlled vocal style made for a hip, gorgeously curated concert experience. Their particular brand of simply styled, creative sophistication set the perfect stage for Yeasayer’s expedition into the wild and weird.

The tone for Yeasayer’s entrance was set by their stage decoration, an elaboration on the album art from their latest release, Amen & Goodbye. Images of various sizes, ranging from about three, six or seven feet tall stood scattered across the stage, perhaps most notably, a baby with a pineapple atop its darling little head, with a semi-hollow hole in the middle. Each of the images, including that of a 6-armed-woman with a speaker where her face should be and a mustachioed man with a menacing stare, all looked slightly vandalized, the purpose of which would become clear as the show progressed.

The Brooklyn art/psychadelic rockers, walked on to perform and looked as if they stepped out of a time machine from a 1950’s B-Movie. The whole performance assumed that aesthetic and vibe; equal parts wholesome (the melodious harmonizing of Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton and Anand Wilder) and otherworldly, with an undercurrent of something slightly sinister at work. As the band churned out tunes old and new, including fan-favorites like “Madder Red” and “2080” and rousing new additions like “I Am Chemistry”, their fervent energy and flashing lights gave the performance a momentous, well-paced energy. It took a few songs until frontman Chris Keating turned his attention from the keyboards and out to the audience, an interesting shift from introversion to extroversion which shifted the mood in the room as well. It was as if to say, “Don’t you worry. It’s on.

The “vandalized” set pieces were part of a bizarre, entertaining light show, at times all lighting up at once, pulsing; at other times, moving from left to right in a flurry. With looks ranging from down-and-out mechanic, 70’s corduroy chic and acid washed Freddie Mercury, their impassioned, eyes-closed delivery kept the mood buoyant as the set continued. Chris Keating killed it center stage with his furtive gesturing and commitment, which was complemented by the laid-back presence of Anand Wilder and the slightly intense posturing of Ira Wolf Tuton. In fabulous fashion, the set concluded with a no-holds-barred dance party to “Ambling Alp” and, to the express joy of the entire crowd, “O.N.E”. Yeasayer brought its fans, old and new, close to their creative world with a stunningly strange, boldly impassioned performance.

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Brooklyn band Yeasayer plunders a Catholic dictionary – Dead Sea Scrolls! Canticles! Divine simulacra! – and cheerfully disregards any associated (earthly) weight for its fourth album, Amen & Goodbye.

Apart from the bland “Silly Me” and the wheedling “Uma”, the tracks are a fine synth pop/rock/folksy mix: “Half Asleep” is pretty and catchy and has a Bollywood twang; “Prophecy Gun” is a study in ambience; and “Dead Sea Scrolls” is as much fun as “I Am Chemistry”, with a bit of a surprise ending. There are two half-minute-long pieces (the title track and “Computer Canticle 1”, more tribal than canticle) apparently tossed in as palette cleansers for all the verbiage and energy.

This is, over all, a far more interesting collection of sound than Yeasayer’s previous album, Fragrant World (2012).

After a New Age-y electronic opening, Amen & Goodbye plunges into the aforementioned “I Am Chemistry”. This is easily the best track here, with a brainworm intro, delicious vocals, and poison-obsessed lyrics cool enough to make up for deficiency in depth: “I’m digoxin from the foxglove plant/ The last remaining VX from Anniston/ […] I am chemistry.” The synth instrumental interlude I was ready to be bored with – this is where the music video becomes too college animation class, when the first nude claymation man slides into view.

And then the Hell-etubbies come in.

You won’t be able to listen to the bright, youthful chorus again without thinking of the creatures performing, with dead smiles, a temple dance for the harvest of toxic alien mould (“My mama told me not to fool with oleander…”). So watch the music video, especially if you like body horror and the art/films of Junji Ito.

Amen & Goodbye will be out on April 1, 2016. It may just alter your brain chemistry. Yeasayer begins its tour of Europe and North America on Feb. 12.

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