The Dirty Projectors
The Dirty Projectors are the best new (to me) band I've come across in a while. I finally saw them last night at The Opera House and it was quite the show.
The band sounded effortlessly powerful. Every note of every song was played with enthusiasm and skill. The drum kit was punchy and high in the mix but played like it was low in the mix. Three female vocalists (acutely aware of and playful with the timbre of their delivery) rocked my socks during every harmony. The 3 girls acted as a unit to punctuate David Longstreth's melodies at odd intervals. Longstreth himself was in top form. To play guitar in his loose style requires a level of inspiration to sound emotional rather than messy, and he was there to deliver. His vocals were in top form as well and sounded as rich as you'd expect from the albums. Impressively, the passion in the delivery at the beginning of the set continued to the end - he even saved one of his most vocally-driven tunes until the Encore.
What I hadn't realized was that their back catalog was so deep. 7 songs in and we'd heard one song from Bitte Orca and 0 songs that didn't stand up to Bitte Orca. It was exhilarating to hear this fresh Dirty Projectors material as dynamic as the stuff on Bitte Orca. They may not have been new, but were new to me...
Owen Pallet came up with his violin for Two Doves, but Angel Deradoorian fucking blew him off the stage with her breathtaking vocal. The one oddity was the rendition of Stillness is the Move - they stripped out the keys, Longstreth noodled instead of playing the main repeating lick, the bassist played his bassline that only works as a counterpoint to the guitar and keys, and the vocalists rocked out as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Interesting and strange, but it didn't quite "click". They solved that in being completely crazy with Useful Chamber by taking an already bizarre song and stretching and contracting the tempo at odd intervals, with the melody weaving around awkwardly. That was an inspired experiment.
I came away very satisfied with an experience that was unlike any I'd had at a concert before. It goes without saying that I highly recommend this band.
The band sounded effortlessly powerful. Every note of every song was played with enthusiasm and skill. The drum kit was punchy and high in the mix but played like it was low in the mix. Three female vocalists (acutely aware of and playful with the timbre of their delivery) rocked my socks during every harmony. The 3 girls acted as a unit to punctuate David Longstreth's melodies at odd intervals. Longstreth himself was in top form. To play guitar in his loose style requires a level of inspiration to sound emotional rather than messy, and he was there to deliver. His vocals were in top form as well and sounded as rich as you'd expect from the albums. Impressively, the passion in the delivery at the beginning of the set continued to the end - he even saved one of his most vocally-driven tunes until the Encore.
What I hadn't realized was that their back catalog was so deep. 7 songs in and we'd heard one song from Bitte Orca and 0 songs that didn't stand up to Bitte Orca. It was exhilarating to hear this fresh Dirty Projectors material as dynamic as the stuff on Bitte Orca. They may not have been new, but were new to me...
Owen Pallet came up with his violin for Two Doves, but Angel Deradoorian fucking blew him off the stage with her breathtaking vocal. The one oddity was the rendition of Stillness is the Move - they stripped out the keys, Longstreth noodled instead of playing the main repeating lick, the bassist played his bassline that only works as a counterpoint to the guitar and keys, and the vocalists rocked out as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Interesting and strange, but it didn't quite "click". They solved that in being completely crazy with Useful Chamber by taking an already bizarre song and stretching and contracting the tempo at odd intervals, with the melody weaving around awkwardly. That was an inspired experiment.
I came away very satisfied with an experience that was unlike any I'd had at a concert before. It goes without saying that I highly recommend this band.