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Live in Dan Deaconville

Sometimes when a concert is just SO GOOD, I immediately realize I'm too lazy to do the concert the full justice it deserves, so I kinda just sit idle in terms of its appearance in this blog. But, now comes the time to post about the Dan Deacon in Vancouver B.C. show which was one of those such experiences. It was a lineup I was more than familiar with - Montag opening for everyone's favorite Wham City resident as I'd taken them in together but one month before in Glasgow, Scotland. And that's what brings me to the funny thing about the show - I've now caught him turning his light bulb on and off to the beat of his electronics three different times in three different countries. It's like I'm some super fan. Before the Vancouver show I would categorize myself as a casual fan - seeing him when the random chance arose, but after? I'm definitely a super fan! The show was like a celebration of being human. If only all concerts were like that. I'd settle for even a fraction.

The show began with support from Vancouver's own Montag - still proud to be gay and still bitching about the Olympics - in the most poppily poetic way possible. His boyfriend was in the audience which was cute. One of my fave Montag songs is about him so that was a fun admission from Montag when he made an onstage dedication to a someone on my right.

There was no ode to the Ying Yang Twins T-shirt in sight, but there were two adolescent boys directly up front facing the audience and seemingly craving some attention for their rave-like antics that didn't yet fit with the vibe of the night. They eventually got kicked out after some woman accused them of something. How do I know even that detail? Well, Meg and I had been watching them and as soon as we noticed their inevitable ejection, I raced down to the doors to listen in on what the security guards were scolding them about.

Next up was Ultimate Reality - a psychedelic montage of Arnold Swartzenegger footage with two drummers and some read-aloud action from Jimmy Joe Roche in regular intervals. It was pretty rad and the drummer from Ponytail was pretty cute. After the show him and Meg had a short convo about high-waisted jeans. Not only cute, but now tres cool.

So the main event? Not only did Dan Deacon attempt the human tent/gauntlet thing, but the dance circle too! Whenever I've seen him prior it's been one or the other, not both and I've never seen either executed so well! Canadians not only know how to follow directions, but they know how to take it up a notch too.

(every one points downwards as warm-up)

Can we just briefly talk about how cool the dictionary's definition of gauntlet is?
Gauntlet: go through an intimidating or dangerous crowd, place, or experience in order to reach a goal.

Oh how I'm loving you more and more Dan Deacon!

I got tagged into the dance circle. It was really funny - Meg and I were stumping to be the first in so that we could do the Crank Dat Soulja Boy dance that we know by heart from staying up until 6am too many nights in a row to watch various tribute and instructional videos. We weren't and Dan's rule was that one person from each half of the circle had to be tagged in at a time eliminating the possibility of us going in together since we were standing together. Everyone tagged in was doing beyond elaborate dances and once Meg made certain I was thrown to the wolves by volunteering me to the next one in hahahaha, I did not do the Crank Dat dance. TonyX said I looked like a hippy during my turn. Why? Because each couple of people tagged in were dancing with each other - some gracefully, some seeking bodily harm and there was no way I was gonna lose an eye at Dan Deacon, so I did flow-y movements to deter my random dance partner from trying to dance with me and keep him at arms length hahahaha. As I understand it, dance partners weren't even the original intention, but rather a dance-off.

(me dancing taken by Tony)

Back in December I asked Dan to open one of his Portland shows with "It's Dan Deacon, bitch" in an ode to Britney. He said if he remembered, he would. Before the show I asked him whether he had, and while he remembered, he didn't end up doing it because he has "issues with the word bitch." Okay... If he wasn't opening his mouth to sing during his Vancouver set, he was opening it to swear.
We gave him a touch-on, touch-off light shaped like a lightbulb beforehand after he asked to keep it from out portrait session at 8pm. And he incorporated it into his live set! Awesomeness! It got passed around too - too much fun to watch from above standing on the beyond sweltering balcony.

Oh - and I got to rock the mic for my second time at a Dan Deacon show! In a brief pause between songs, I took the opportunity to rush him and start shouting: "Harry Potter, Book 6. Smoke weed everyday." He passed the mic to me, ran it through the vocoder and I shouted and shouted, then began passing the mic to people hoping they'd follow along. They didn't quite know what was going on, which isn't so bad given it was his first ever B.C. show (gasp! shock! the horror!) and he didn't explain for even a second what was going on/the jist of the "song." It was so fun/funny!

This show was definitely the best and most memorable of all three times I've seen him. It appeared to also be so for him as when the show was ending, he took a moment to mention how he has been perpetually touring for the past year and a half and the Vancouver B.C. show at Richard's on Richards was an especially special one. It broke through in the cycle of things for him. It was touching. Cue soft focus lenses if it were being filmed for Oprah.

I'm SOOOOO glad I saw him in B.C. over PDX based on just about everyone's reviews of the attendees at his duo of Portland shows. He said he felt like he had to remind people to dance at them - even the all-ages program at Backspace. And from what I hear of the Holocene show, it was more people coming to watch a show than be apart of one, which I guess had to happen at some point given the press on the craziness that ensues when he parks his electronic and lights just below the stage.

Hands down one of the best concerts of 2008 already.

It's Dan Deacon, bitch

I didn't see Kanye West, but I saw the next best - or better best. Yes - having not managed my way onto the glist at the SECC (tracking down Mr. West's info is a bit like finding the personal details for Miss Spears) I turned to the other show that had just winged it's way into my consciousness - Dan Deacon at Nice N' Sleazy's. With some VERY last minute maneuvering on behalf of Dan's right-hand man Chester (not a grinning cat though) Endersby Gwazda and pr man with the mostest Daniel Gill I sauntered downstairs with a band already on. Who was it? Who was it? Why it was only Gay Against You!!! I hadn't seen the duo since I last was in Glasgow - literally days before I moved back to the States in '06. We took photos at the University.

Literally - what was the FIRST thing I listened to when I got to Leigh's flat in Maryhill just last week? "Gay Unicorn!" Oh how the planets aligned for me on this night hahahahaha. They saved the track for their encore.

During their set they were all over the place - hovering at the ceiling, sprawled on the floor and getting a lil' help in the form of a human mic stand.

"Gay Unicorn" Gay Against You MP3 -pure pop perfection - if pop checked out of a mental institute earlier than ordered.

http://www.myspace.com/gayagainstyou

Next up was multi-instrumentalist Montag (Deutsch for Monday) - hailing from the fine country that is Canada. He's French-Canadian chic and held a conversation with a fellow Quebec dweller on and off through out his set - so much so that he started speaking to the crowd in French before realizing - hey - we speak English here hahaha. He said seeing Dan Deacon is like a "soul massage" and spoke about how happiness is a choice. Bright words, but sometimes hard to adhere to. Montag currently is living it up in Vancouver when not on tour, though perhaps 'living it up' isn't the best phrasing as now that the Olympics are moving in, it's not really his bag anymore more which he went into briefly from the stage.

Noting that we'd just seen Gay Against You, he continued on that he was "gay for you."

He's very fun! Oh - and the shirt he was wearing proved his allegiance lies not with Mr. Andre 3000, but the Ying Yang Twins as it proclaimed "Shake it like a Salt Shaker" as opposed to a polaroid. What 'till you see my...

Dan Deacon was next. Let's fast-forward to after the show shall we? I requested that Dan open either or both of his forthcoming Portland dates in January with "It's Dan Deacon bitch."

Yeah - I'm that obsessed with Britney. Anyone says the word bitch anymore and I instantly relate it to "Gimme More." Dan made that mistake when he was trying to get people to dance and came up with this elaborate plot in which two cartoon characters including Daffy the Duck make their way into the club looking like hot shit and throw down $2K and tell us we better dance in so many words, concluding the command with "Bitch!"

Did this make people dance? Well, kind of, well almost...
The show was SO different to his show at Holocene during MusicFest NW and what I see happening at most all his American shows.

We got our work out early on during his soundcheck. He's rocking an i-pod shuffle now. Yes. An i-pod shuffle. As if it wasn't hard enough for him to keep his songs straight with a more streamlines actual ipod, he's moved to an even more shady contraption. It turns off at any given moment and rather frequently - clearly the tool of choice for a live show! I asked him why he got a shuffle and he said it was because he's cheap and it was cheaper than getting a replacement i-pod when his other died.

What does he have on there other than his own tracks? Why only House of Pain! he played it and I requested he take it to the chorus and he did. He played it repeatedly in fact. Instead of seeing Kanye cry and sing about touching the sky - Dan had us kneeling on the ground and reaching for the sky (or at least the ceiling) ourselves with our palms and index fingers and visually harassing strangers. Very strange, very fun.

I made my request early on for "Harry Potter. Book 6. Smoke weed everyday" and got it. He even handed me the mic and started modifying my voice. People followed along, but didn't really know what was going on with the chanting.

He also passed the mic off to this guy who talked soaps and other random things.

Soon he had us doing a circular version of Soul Train as opposed to his usual human tent thing. The dance circle had four instructions - one of them being to look "sassy as fuck." Dan didn't seem to impressed with the footwork - apparently London did it better just a few days prior - I never got tagged in. Boo.

Dance, dance! (We're falling apart to half time...) (Yes - I just snuck a FOB track in! Pete Wentz 4eva!)

He had no lyrics sheets for "Wham City," but we sang along anyway!
For the last song - performed well over his appointed set end time, we/he wrote a song on the spot and then it was over - another fascinating cartoon filled adventure into the warped mind of a rallying Mr. Deacon.

"The House I Was Isn't My Girlfriends Porsche" Dan Deacon MP3

After the show I overheard this girl saying to her friends "It's hardwork being poor" Ain't that the truth! Ain't that the truth! God - and if I view it as work, it somehow makes it more bearable, so I thank my ears for eavesdropping and her acknowledging that truth aloud. It's difficult enough being poor in Portland, but especially over here where the pound is worth double the dollar and a lot of the people I've been running with here are rich, rich, rich.

So as I made my way up the stairs a couple was discussing their babysitter just ahead of me. Who were they? Well, just Paul Thomson and a fabulous looking Esther of course! hahaha I knew there was no way I was gonna be in Glasgow and not come across at least one Franz Ferdinander.

Damn you MusicfestNW!

and your little dog too!

MusicFest NW - why did you have to be so amazing!?!  Why!?!  Seriously - ten times more than I ever expected.
First you made me resentful - I mean you took Justin Timberlake away from me!  Seriously - I had been counting on going to that concert since at least May, gabbed about it to my friends, and then - poof, you make him disappear by having Grizzly Bear, Starfucker, Dan Deacon, and Rilo Kiley all on the same night.
But you redeemed yourself with what made me resentful in the first place.  I don't care how many times I've seen Grizzly Bear, it's never enough.

Ed after the show:

Live at the Doug Fir:

(Drummer Christopher Bear was rocking a brand-spanking new Deerhunter T)

Still, why Justin couldn't you have postponed Portland too?

But - oh the lack of sleep!  Never fully expected it to the extent it existed, but now I know not to have a day job during all the days of the fest and schedule myself to participate in Crafty Wonderland on my only day off my day job but still on a MFNW day.
But still I stayed out until 2, then stayed up even later uploading photos when I had to be at work at 9:30 the next day.
Oh MusicFest NW - why do you only have to last four days!?!
I now can't wait for SXSW!  I think I'm really gonna try for 2008, even though I already know I have a conflict with the dates in March.

Girl Talk and Dan Deacon were my favorite sets of the fest. 

I have tried and tried again to listen to 'Crystal Cat', but accepted that Dan Deacon was not my bag.  When assigned to turn up to his gig I did so with curiosity only emboldened by the fact that when I turned up, Justin Kent was there after having just put his camera equipment away - there was no way to shoot it apparently - the strobe lights breaking three minutes of just a blackened room completely packed with people like a gas chamber.  Oh how that made me want to witness it all the more.  I came for a concert, what I got was a cult. 

He had lyrics sheets for 'Wham City':

People sang from them covered in sweat:

(It was SERIOUSLY hot in there!  People's sweat was dripping in actual drops onto my camera)

It's so funny too, because I am like the most drug-free person - I mean I've never even smoked a cigarette or drank coffee, yet I found myself gleefully chanting along with everyone in attendance - "Harry Potter, Book 6!  Smoke weed everyday!"  In fact, I'm still chanting it.  Seriously - as I bounced around between sets of Swim Swam Swum, Holy Fuck, and Wolf Parade two days later on Sunday night, that chant and talking about Lorin of the Thermals was all that occupied my time.
I heard from two people - Cary Clarke and Jason Simms that Dirty Projectors was their favorite set of the fest.  Wish I could've been in two places at once, but I was over onstage shooting and dancing at Girl Talk.

Where's Waldo Girl Talk?

Can you find him?

With Girl Talk I got exactly what I expected - times ten!  I wondered with the Roseland's security as notorious as they are with a seemingly "no fun" policy - how would my man Gregg Gillis' set look without people clogging the stage alongside him?  Well, one - he didn't perform on the stage.  He performed in the barrier between the stage and the crowd - until he actually started performing because as soon as his beats began, people were hopping the barrier too fast to time.  And security was game with it!  They stood on the stage in protection of all of the fancy/swish/expensive hip-hop/rap/DJ equipment and let the crowd go WILD!!!!!!!!!!  He had a pretty copy of Finder besides his laptop.  He played Grizzly Bear's 'Knife' minus Clipse's vocals proclaiming "Wamp, Wamp, what it do, what it do?"
Oh Gregg!  You finally got to steal my heart live!  If you (actually you, not Gregg :) read this blog in November, I was actually scheduled to do a photo shoot with him and attend his show at Holocene, but he still had his day job at the time and didn't get into Portland until WAY LATE crushing our previously scheduled commitments.
And oh my god - did he look like Garrett or did he look like Garrett!?!:

My biggest upset was missing Typhoon.  Enough said... oh how I tried!
Eugene Mirman = super super crafty/clever/funny.

I accidentally spit what I had in my mouth on someone due to uncontrollable laughter.  Ten minutes later, someone spit a mouthful of beer on me for the same reasons, for which I could forgive him.  If you do not know him, I am NOT exaggerating - he is TOO funny.  Even when I think something is funny, I typically don't laugh out loud.  This was not the case with him.  Tokyo Police Club were trying so hard to see him at Bumbershoot.  I now know why.  Wolfcats forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was there any gig that the Mercury's Rob Simonsen wasn't at?  I ran into him without actually talking to him too many times to count.
Oh and Fist Fite - "Ooohhhhh, love to love you baby.  Ooohhhhh, love to love you baby"!  Perhaps my favorite Portland band.  Perhaps hands down. 

I was really scared they'd start evolving into a more normal band - ie more normal antics, maybe become predictable, but they haven't at all.  They remain at the top of their game - you can guess, but you don't truly know what's coming next with them.  They owned the stage at the Doug Fir. 

It was great to see them again after months and months of not doing so.  Jonnie threw glitter all over us in the very front and her glitter remained there long after.  I spied it on the monitors during Deerhunter and then when I was selling bobby pins and scarves at Crafty Wonderland the next morning, my table was directly over a patch of glitter on the floor.
Prepare yourself for what I'm about to type.  I d-o n-o-t g-e-t D-e-e-r-h-u-n-t-e-r.
Yeah, I just wrote that.
Let's leave it at that, but still talk about them.

They were seated on the sidewalk outside of their label mate White Rainbow's gig on Saturday at Satyricon.
I wanted to take (scheduled) portraits of them minus Colin who quit last week, but it didn't happen.  I will next time though.  I have two specifically generated ideas for them and they are entirely too fun.
So what were my other highlights?  Even with my anti-social self that was surprisingly social after laying low and working six-days a week during August, my highlights centered around interaction.  I met Erik and we talked endlessly about the goddess that is Beth Ditto, Britney Spears, and Perez Hilton as well as sang Yo majesty songs at each other after he yelled "I love your blog," as I walked by trying to make it to the last four minutes of YACHT's gig.  His friend looked like Corbin Bleu from High School Musical.  My favorite quote of the weekend stems from this.
"Do people say that to you all the time?"
"All the time.  Mostly homeless people."
I met Max at the Crystal before Thermals who I ended up missing to shoot Clipse.  All of drummer Lorin Coleman's brothers were in attendance helping erect giant trees onstage.
Oh god - and Starfucker.  Can we talk about how much more he continues to rock with each gig!!? 

SEE HIM if you can cos he's gonna stop playing local shows too soon.  I have 30 Starfucker tracks because that was all that'd fit on the disc he gave me back in June-ish, but the absolute best of the night was his unrecorded ode to the Mariners' 'Ichiro'. SOOOOOOOOOOOO good!  We were texting back and forth before his set because I wanted him to save 'German Love' for me since I'd be shooting the first few minutes of Tiny Vipers' set at Doug Fir then high-tailing it across the bridge (with the Burnside bridge inconveniently closed) for his set that also started at 10 and he typically whips that one out early.  He assured that he wouldn't be playing it too early and when we arrived at Towne Lounge he was mid-way through.  Perfect timing!  And he had another drummer with him too!  And not his Sexton Blake co-patriot.  He briefly drummed with a juice bottle.
I ran into a lot of people from high school who I haven't seen for at least a year each.  It was weird/cool/surreal.
So yeah - Bobby Bare is fun.
I was gonna do a Bobby Bare/Cat power specific post, but not anymore.  Here is some of what I wrote:

Bobby Bare Jr. arrived in Portland via Nashville to open for Cat Power care of an earned free flight on Southwest Airlines and to an awaiting free pair of orange Nikes - not that he needed them.  When he took to the stage at Audio Cinema, he did so in stocking feet with an acoustic guitar and the Decemberists' Chris Funk in toe.  Together they rolled through half of the set -- Bobby Bare Jr.'s country sound made complete with his Hank Williams-esque yelps and Funk's guitar picking and mandeolin playing.  Mid-way through, the tempo turned rock at which point several more Decemberists made their way onto the stage, minus Colin Meloy who joked beforehand that he was an employee of Adidas and that's what prevented his partcipation.
What is a Cat Power show minus the breakdowns she seems to have left behind a couple tours ago and the seemingly mindless chatter that can plague her sets?

A kinda normal one, still uniquely Cat Power.  She performed quite a different set to her last Portland showing that included two shows in one day without accompaniment at the Aladdin.  This time around Chan's only duties were that of singing and hoofing it around the stage while her Philadelphia hailing companion commanded both the piano and guitar.
Masked in an unchanging blue light, she shook her hands, tapped her white shoes like a pony, and sang with very little interaction with the audience other than a brief comment about her "skinny jeans," passed off a lit cigarette after one drag, and admitted to being nervous, but that did not detract.
It was a set of covers including her Cat Stevens cover that appears in the Debeers commercial plus 'The Tracks of My Tears' originally by the Miracles.  Absent were her typical cover of the Rolling Stones and even Velvet Underground, or 'Freebird' as she played upon request at the Aladdin.
She closed her set with two originals - 'The Greatest' which drew cheers from the audience for the song itself and to finally be hearing something more familiar and 'Lived in Bars'.

Oh and I spied Quasi's Janet Weiss backstage at Spoon.

MusicfestNW started with a bang for me when I came from Seattle day of to catch Cat Power - literally went straight from Greyhound, into a taxi, over the river to Audio Cinema with 7 minutes to spare before Bare hit the stage and shot some candids of him and the Decemberists.

(He's managed by Trevor, who is the director of MFNW)

My weekend came to a very sad end both before and after Wolf Parade when Britney Spears failed to nail her VMA performance.  Can we cry collectively?  And you know, I realize that people's hopes should not be hinged on one human being - there is no way she can support all of the weight of that many expectations, but that doesn't mean I'm not disappointed and that I'm not going to cry or that I haven't already... multiple times... once while watching Holy Fuck tear up the stage with distorted casio rocking crap-pop.

My MusicfestNW experiences over the internets:

My Pitchfork photo expose

I blogged MFNW Day 2 at LocalCut

I blogged MFNW Day 3 at LocalCut

I blogged MFNW Day 4 at LocalCut

And you can pick up this week's edition of Willamette Week to see seven of my observations in print from Fist Fite to Deerhunter's dress sense plus a bit about Wolf Parade's set and spy three of my photos!!!!!!!

And my mini photo story of the fest: I typically don't LOVE my photos.  In fact I have such a hard time looking at them after I've taken them that I can sometimes be kinda late on deadlines because I don't want to look at them and see how close they could've been to being one step better, but the photo at the top of the post I immediately fell in actual love with.  I originally submitted it to the MFNW invite only flickr group for editors to browse through as I was submitting some of my top tier photos there, but then I realized that even though I loved it, some other editors might not and I didn't want to risk it not running, because I wanted other people to see it, so I removed it and sent it to Pitchfork where I knew it'd appear.
Today I got an email from the editor of the Bend Bulletin saying how much he in all-caps LOVED the photo and how he was happy to use my other Girl Talk shots he had access to in the MusicfestNW flickr, but that's the one he really wanted.  Since the exclusivity has expired now, I sent it his way.
I almost feel like a real photographer lately.  Keyword: almost.

Here's to next year!

(And no, I was not wearing a backpack even though it looks like it)

Now I'm sick, but it was worth it!

'Wham City' Dan Deacon MP3

'Knife' Grizzly Bear Girl Talk remix MP3

'How Can I Tell You' Cat Power clip MP3

PS - I'll be uploading ten million more photos that have yet to appear anywhere to my flickr within the next week.  So bookmark it if you wanna see them/yourself in the crowd at Girl Talk.