| « Photo review, Dan Deacon at the Metro, 5/7/09 | Review: Winter Gloves @ Darkroom » |
Concert Sat May 09 2009
Concert Review: Deerhoof, Maps and Atlases
The cavernous Bottom Lounge is a daunting place to fill on a Thursday night, but a small crew manned the upstairs bar, a decent gang resided in the main bar, and a downright impressive (if not quite capacity) swell of folks filled the back room for a three-bill musical spectacle. Starting things off were Anticon's Serengeti & Polyphonic, the latter playing mild-mannered beats under the incomprehensible rhymes of the former. Everyone has off nights, and some tastes are more acquired than others, but the audience was about as fully involved in their own conversations and drinks as they could be without facing completely away from the stage. Several points found lyrics giving way to a stuttered f-bomb in lieu of a rhyme, and when they did come, it was with treats like "a stolen chandelier/barfing from the womb".
After a quick recuperation, Maps and Atlases took the stage. The three string-players were lined across wearing Hoodie, vest, flannel - a front line hipster triumverate. But there was no posing here. Singer Dave Davison has the bent yelp and polite plead of a Van Morrison and a Cat Stevens in his singing, and plays a mean guitar to boot. Erin Elders joins him for some fancy fretwork - if you've never seen finger-tapping outside of metal videos or your drunk friend at a party, rest assured it can be a powerful weapon when used in pop melodies. Shiraz Dada kept the pace on bass, and Chris Hainey broke out just the right amounts of cowbell, xylophone, and wood block to create a refreshingly new but sugar-y sweet simple pop that would probably make Vampire Weekend punch the windows out of their parent's Bentleys. After rousing versions of "Every Place Is A House" and "Ted Zancha" the band was in full control of the audience, and after a few more songs, left to a big burst of applause.
The foursome of Deerhoof, now a year and change into their current line-up, took the stage softly and carried a big stick. Vamping through a short opener, the band then hit the jangly first notes of "Chandelier Spotlight" with Satomi greeting everyone appropriately for the windowless venue - "welcome to the underworld..." A strange group of bros in the front kept shouting in unison for "wolf head" (?) during the song breaks. Satomi coolly asked are you from "wis-con-sin? Wis-con-sin! Wis-con-sin!" to much approval from the gents and the audience in general. Having saved the day, she returned to her far corner of the stage. Although almost obscured from view, she kept her presence known with her usual fantastic vocals and the occasional flying kick.
