Dan Deacon Dan Deacon Dan Deacon

WCWM sponsored one of Baltimore's biggest acts, Dan Deacon, on April 5th. Deacon made it to Pitchfork's 25 best records of 2007 with Spiderman of the Rings and his newest album Bromst has already made it to their Best New Music, ranking in at 8.5 pitchforks. He also made it to Rolling Stone's top 100 hits of 2007 with his single "Crystal Cat."

To be honest, I wasn't entirely impressed with Bromst when I first heard it. I don't want to completely shut it down, it's really just not my kind of thing. But, as a good DJ would, I promoted it. It was amazing that WCWM was able to book Deacon (usually UCAB books all the cool artists). Also, I had heard amazing things about Deacon's concerts. So I bit my tongue, played the ads that Stephen Reader and I made on both of my shows, and waited it out to see how it really was.

And seriously, all promotion and loyalty aside, it was pretty awesome.

Deacon's show was all about lights and crazy dancing. He starts with a warm up activity reminiscent of preschool teachers and crunchy yoga instructors, asking the audience to raise their arms and then crouch to the floor and wiggle their fingers. At one point during the performance, he had everyone in the audience line up and create a bridge, with each person running through and starting another link until the bridge had extended outside and then come back in.

Another bonus? His band had awesome matching white jumpsuits. Dan Deacon wore a WCWM shirt given to him by the station earlier that evening. The music was pretty great. Having been to the concert, sweating, dancing and taking photos, I appreciate what Deacon is doing, and how much work and coordination really goes into his music. I think his is the kind of music that requires extraordinarily loud volume and the ability to shut your eyes and just let loose and rock out. Otherwise it's just kind of "eh." At some point, amidst all the chaos of people flailing their arms and trying to be as close to Deacon (who was on the floor with the crowd) as possible, I realized that every good thing I had heard about the Dan Deacon concert experience had come true... like a magical fairytale.

And after the party it's the after party. I got to meet everyone but Mr. Deacon himself. Not being what you would call a "groupie" this was a fairly new experience for me. (I regret not going to the after-party Jens Lekman attended just about every day of my life) Despite the requests for unpasteurized cheese and sufite-free wine on the rider, everyone seemed pretty chill. And I'd say they seem pretty normal too, except that they were touring the US on a modified school bus for the next couple of months.

However, I was awoken the next morning by the band playing Limp Biskit on the loud speakers in my boyfriend's living room at 7:30. Suddenly the magical experience of the concert the night before turned into mild distaste for the 14 or so person band who slept on the couches, floor and coffee tables of Alice Street and then drove away in a school bus on a rainy Monday morning. Limp Biskit? Really?

Check out my photos from the show on flickr:



Also, I really like this video

<3 Ali

P.S. check out Omar's review of the show