The Upstate Life
The Upstate Life

Friday, May 11, 2007
TUL's Take: Dan Deacon @ Rock and Roll Hotel

We were introduced to Mr. Deacon just one month ago when he opened for Girl Talk at The Ottobar in Baltimore and was immediately won over by his spazzing performance. Essentially, Dan Deacon one-upped the headliner that night and we couldn't wait to catch him live again. Last night's show at the Rock and Roll Hotel was his first date of a cross-country tour in an effort to promote his debut LP, Spiderman of the Rings, which was released just three days ago. During opener Beat the Devil's set, Dan was roaming the floor while chatting with fans (including myself – really nice guy btw) and watching the band onstage. You honestly couldn't tell that he would take over the small room just an hour later.

Dan Deacon
kicked the evening off around 11:30 with one of the best songs from his new LP, "The Crystal Cat". The crowd, which was comprised of no more than 80 people, danced along to Dan's frantic beats and electronically altered vocals. His setup, just like The Ottobar show, consisted of a table full of digital/analog instruments along with several light bulbs (he asked RNR Hotel to turn off the house lights) including the infamous skull head strobe and was situated on the floor right in front of the audience instead of up onstage. Dan's banter in between songs had to be the one of the funniest out of all the musicians I've seen just for its sheer WTF-ness. The dude has got one hell of a comedic act if the music thing doesn't work out for him.

The most interesting part of the night was when he got the entire crowd to join hands and form a circle while telling a story about how he abused his friend's Netflix account in a "repeat after me" approach. Yeah, you kind of had to be there, but it was amusing nonetheless. Dan closed out the hour long set with the epic, ten minute long "Wham City", and even though he apologized for forgetting the lyric sheets this time around, it didn't really matter as the crowd was into it from the get go. Though we weren't as profusely sweaty by the end of the set compared to the Baltimore show (then again, that place was full to the brim along with a nonexistent A/C system), it was another great performance put on by one of Bmore's own. I'm also glad we caught him a day before Pitchfork's acclaimed review (rightfully so I might add) was published so that we could avoid all the Pfork bandwagon whores that would start showing up. Of course, I forgot to bring my camera so these shitty cell phone pics will have to do:



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