Flower, Flower, Flowwwwer: Deefhoof Live 9/14/09 at The Middle East

Hey everybody out there in the inter-land. I thought today I would review a live performance that I went to last night which I believed so noteworthy that it deserves mentioning.

I went so see Deerhoof last night, with opening acts Glass Ghosts, and Serengeti and Polyphonic. Glass Ghosts went on at 9, and were... interesting to say the least. The singer sings kind of like the singer from Sigur Ros, if he were singing in English. They were a drum/synth ethereal-pop duo. The drummer had his stuff together, the beats were very interesting, syncopated, and clean. Their songs got grating towards the end of the set because of the singer/keyboard player always plays block chords on every beat, a sort of four-on-the-floor for keyboard; granted there were some times where this was good, and he was usually doing something else with his other hand, be it playing bass lines on his Moog or synth-vocal lines on the other keyboard. when the duo was singing in harmony, it was much more tolerable, but I ducked out for a bit near the end because it was grating on me.

Serengeti and Polyphonic was up next at 10. This duo was a DJ with his macbook, making all sorts of whacked-out beats with added noise, while the rap artist Serengeti slung his rhymes out over it. This was probably the funniest 30 minutes of my life. I was laughing my ass off half the time because his rhymes were so ridiculous, it was like listening to someone with schizophrenia rap. He even mentioned sonata form in one of his tracks, it made me laugh, but when he was done, I was glad for it to be over.

Finally at 11, Deerhoof made their way onto the stage. Whether it was the fact that their drummer is Animal (from the Muppets) incarnate, or the high vocals of Satomi, they captured the attention of the 400 or so people and held us there for the whole time they played. With such great renditions of "+81" "Flower" and "Giga Dance" and the speeches from Greg Saunier, or even the fact that at midnight it was Ed Rodriguez's birthday and the whole place sang happy birthday to him; it was incredible. Also, as an afterthought, The Middle East is an amazing venue to hear band in Boston, upstairs or down. Keep it up Deerhoof, when you come around again, I plan on being there.

Until next time.