The Dan Deacon Ensemble, Freeman Auditorium, 4/13/09

The Tulane campus got a rare treat last night as Baltimore experimental electronic guru Dan Deacon played a small show in Woldenberg Hall's Freeman Auditorium.

The music kicked off around 8 with local lo-fi grungy rock band The Lovey Doveys, who suffered sorely from the lack of monitors. The instruments had a decent sound, but the singer was painfully off key for the majority of the songs. What's worse, no one bothered to turn out the lights, so the whole thing felt awkward and out of place. I wouldn't mind hearing these guys again under better circumstances.

Following that was Baltimore experimental band Teeth Mountain. Featuring a lineup of cello, saxophone, 2 drum kits and synths/keyboards, the sound was difficult to predict and even more difficult to describe.

The pounding tribal beats and use of (often abrasive) noise effects draws the inevitable comparison to Animal Collective, specifically their early releases (Hailing from Baltimore and playing experimental music, I'm sure Dan Deacon and friends hear themselves compared to Animal Collective all too often. Deacon himself joked about it later in the show, announcing "We're Animal Collective!" before launching into his first song).

Following them was yet another Baltimore group, Future Islands. Their synth beats got the crowd dancing in a hurry, but most memorable was the lead singer. With a voice somewhere between Black Francis and Van Morrison, this guy could seriously belt it.

Finally the main event rolled around. I snapped a few shots of Deacon and crew setting up for their set.
The first photo is of Deacon's wonderful table of sounds. In traditional Deacon show manner, that board is literally in the crowd so he can rock out with the rest of us. That last photo was meant to show the 3 (!) drum kits Deacon's show featured.

After a delay to put together the light effects (i.e. taping strobe lights to amps and mic stands), the show began. Playing mainly songs off of Deacon's fantastic recently released Bromst LP, the ensemble rocked the small room unrelentingly for the duration of their set. Though I originally viewed it as overkill, I could absolutely appreciate the triple drum attack once the music got going. A large projection screen showed trippy images like this:

Midway through the show Deacon stopped the music to play a little game. Two people stood opposite eachother with hands clasped above their heads like so:Someone would go through their arms and wait at the end for the next person to form the next link of the chain with them. This continued up out the door of the auditorium, eventually spilling out onto the road outside. Unfortunately some people started leaving their spots and, as easily as it had started, the whole thing fell apart.

The show on the whole was fantastic. I'd encourage anyone to go see these guys. Just don't go if you don't plan on dancing. The few people who remained seated for the whole show didn't look like they were having much fun.