DeKalb | During a sold-out show Friday night Otto’s, 118 E. Lincoln Highway, became the centerpiece for Yo La Tengo’s DeKalb debut.

As the band’s tour bus parked outside Walgreens and the crew unloaded their equipment, the crowd stuffed into the venue and waited for the band’s performance.

“I thought it was phenomenal,” said senior communication major Sam Hawkins. “It’s the best $20 I’ve spent in a while.”

After intermission, the band and sound engineers prepared for a performance with electric instruments. With pulsating bass lines, crooning keyboard notes duct-tapped down for entire songs and chaotic-chirping guitar riffs, Yo La Tengo’s shoegaze performance elicited a smooth transition into the waking hours of Saturday morning.

“To me, it really felt the entire atmosphere of Otto’s tonight just was Yo La Tengo,” said Marcus Rodriguez, senior Spanish business translator. “Their sound encompassed everything. Tonight was actually my first time seeing Otto’s packed for first time in a while.”

After the show, fans could purchase a vinyl of Yo La Tengo, including their most recent studio album, “Fade,” and momentarily mingle with the guitarist/vocalist of the band, Ira Kaplan.

“The confidence of putting tours together is a tricky thing, especially as the years go by [and] the more our shows are in big cities,” Kaplan said. “And then, something happens. Tonight it worked. The crowd I thought was great. Playing a city like DeKalb, things have to fall into place. And it did. I had a really great time.”