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Dan Deacon @ Troubadour 4.22.09
Dan Deacon, the Baltimore whiz kid with the big glasses and even bigger soundtrack, managed to run his veggie-powered bus through Los Angeles last week, just in time to unload his monster ensemble on stage behind him and get the party movin'.
Unless you live or die by the reviews on Pitchfork, it might be a bit of a stretch to say that Dan is a household name, which truly is unfortunate. His happy brand of sound cacophony really is a wonderful mixture of lighthearted piano, overworked synth, and quick-and-fast beats. And with so much going on, one would think it too easy to get lost in the noise, but the truth is the conservatory-trained Deacon never flounders, on stage or behind a wall of studio tweaking.
However, there is truly something to seeing Deacon live that you'd be sorely missing by just picking up his albums. His show at the Troubadour was classic Dan, combining audience interaction (the gauntlet, a dance-off, moving everyone to one side of the room) with long stretches of swaying, sweaty kids all moving to the jams coming out of a multi-colored catch-all stand housing the basic Dan Deacon tools for success. And it's right on the dance floor, not on stage.
On tour to support his new album Bromst, Deacon was also backed up by a large ensemble of synth players, percussions, and just about anything else you'd want to hear over the course of a single evening. The result is an overwhelming mix of live sounds and electronic scrabble, all coming together with a precision that would be so hard for anyone else to maintain. Check out the photos above to get a very, very small idea of the awesomeness that is a Dan Deacon live show.
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