Show Review! - Deerhunter!!

Oh, boy, Deerhunter! But wait. First let's start off with the opener, a lil' band called The Strange Boys.These guys come from Austin, Texas, and while I'm not sure how old they are, they all looked pretty young (the singer and guitarist especially). They played a sort of lo-fi-garage-y pop, very much in the vein of bands like Black Lips and Smith Westerns. They were really fun (my friend said they were "too happy") and when they announced that they had one song left, some fnas in front of me yelled for two more, and the band gladly obliged. I was pretty glad they did, I really enjoyed their set, some good ol' energetic, happy music.

And on to Deerhunter! While these guys unfortunately weren't the headliners (they were opening for Spoon), they were the band I was there to see. I remember hearing somewhere that their shows were so incredible that they were more like experiences than concerts, and I kinda have to agree with that. From the moment they came on, I was pretty captivated, they were just really, really amazing. They kept a good feel through their setlist, and played a lot of what I wanted to hear, including some of their more popular songs (Never Stops, Nothing Ever Happened) and they closed with the 10 minute version of Calvary Scars. I thought live, they had a lot more energy than on the albums. My friend remarked that the more ambient, experimental, washy instrumental parts went on for too long sometimes, but I really like that sort of thing, so I thought it was excellent. I heard some other people in the crowd saying it was boring and things like that, but if that's what they think then they obviously suck. My one complaint would be that they didn't play Strange Lights (my favorite song), but the show was great even without it.

Spoon came on after, but I left early. Britt came on by himself for the first two songs, and that annoyed me, made it seem more like the other guys were just backing him up, and it's just the complete antithesis of what a band should be like, I think. The music sounded good though (and angst-tinged).

If you've got a chance to see Deerhunter, go out right now and buy tickets. They're really quite amazing.

- Alec