If at first one of your favourite bands does not succeed live, then try, try again. It took me two times seeing Deerhunter this year for me to get what I wanted. The first wasn't bad by any means, just not what my heart had yearned for. Half a year later, I got the Deerhunter experience I desired.
There are a number of key ingredients that made this show a winner over the last one. The first was the setting. Without getting into why the Sound Academy should be razed, let me instead extend my praises to the Opera House. I could probably watch someone play a hand saw with a violin bow and enjoy it there. It simply brings out the best in whoever is on stage. The second difference was that this evening Deerhunter were in the headlining slot. It shouldn't make a difference what time a band plays, but for some reason it did.
The one constant element during both performances was the incredibly unique persona of front man Bradford Cox. Some may call it eccentric, others may say he's just weird. Let's just say he has a presence to him and regardless of what you call it, it's fun to watch. Often responding to something ridiculous shouted at him from the audience, Cox would give back something equally as silly. Yes, a bit goofy; but between that banter he and his bandmates spin a fantasy for your ears. So let them have their fun.
I like it when a band recognizes the great work in its back catalogue and decides to use it to its advantage. Deerhunter have just that in the album Microcastles*. Pairing up the obvious songs like Cover Me Slowly with Agoraphobia so that they're heard they way they're meant to. Every song was in its right place, Deerhunter showed that they knew it.
Deciding to go in fresh to new music, tonight was the first night I actually heard anything from Halcyon Digest. The surprise I got from hearing it was not unlike that on Christmas morning. I can always tell how much I love new material when I'm itching to go buy a new record in a middle of a set. Luckily I have a shred of self-restraint still because they played all of their new stuff and it sounded great. Songs like Helicopter and Desire Lines really stood out at the end of the night.
Musically the band did everything right. They did their fair share of distortion-fuelled interludes in between songs, but to the bands credit it never became annoying. Vocally, Cox took liberties on the way he sings some of his songs. Changing up the chorus a bit on songs like Never Stops gives just one more reason to see them live. There's always a different way you can see your favourite songs performed, if you wanted to hear them exactly like they were recorded you could stay home.
I was extremely lucky to take in this concert at all. I'll be the first to admit that I can be extremely stubborn when it comes to music. There are some moves bands have made that I will never forgive them for. Maybe I should take this experience as proof that I should give them another try. For now I'll just be happy that I made a little progress on one night this year and enjoyed one of my favourite bands the way I wanted to.
*To this day, Microcastles has my favourite critical blurb on it: “a desperate plea for auto-erotic asphyxiation.”
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