"It's time for a New York city love song!" announced Karen O at the start of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' encore at Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday night. Then she screeched, "This song was written for you, New York City!" The song in question was the YYYs' modern classic, 'Maps,' but the Brooklyn-bred band had charted a new direction for the version they played last night to the enthralled audience. A cellist and two violinists were arranged at the left of the stage, and axeman Nick Zinner was perched on a stool with an acoustic guitar. So when the divine Miss O gently sang, "Wait. They don't love you like I love you," it was a Bic-lighter moment.

The YYYs' performances have never stinted on spectacle, and last night's show was no exception. Massive eyeballs hung in a row behind the band, like watchful planets in an avant-garde solar system, and at one point, stagehands pushed inflatable versions into the crowd to ramp up the surreal factor. The group worked their way through breakthrough songs like 'Phenomena' and 'Gold Lion' but mostly stuck to their latest album, 'It's Blitz,' a disc that is alternately dreamy and jittery. The latter parts owe a lot to opening act ESG, the No Wave pioneers whose influence Karen O acknowledged during the show. "Where would we be without ESG?!" she yelled gratefully.

The singer went through multiple costume changes, many of them involving cape-like outerwear and assorted headdresses. She made her entrance in a bizarre ensemble featuring a rectangular headpiece, much to the audience's delight. "She's giant!" a fan whispered excitedly to his friend as he watched the lanky frontwoman bewitch the throng. "Sometimes I think I'm bigger than the sound," Karen O sang in 'Cheated Hearts,' and fans at Radio City would be hard-pressed to disagree.