By the time this veritable indie tour-de-force dropped in on us crazy college kids, the entire campus was a bundle of nerves in sheer anticipation of the spectacle ahead. To sum up the show in a few words: if you hadn’t heard of the group when you arrived in town, by the time you left you were a dyed-in-the-wool Deerhoof devotee.
Local campus band Zohar kicked off the evening’s festivities with a lovable brand of infectiously noisy prog-rock (think Blue Cheer meets Load Records meets elves dancing playfully through a Midwestern cornfield). Adorning the matching tie-dyed unitard costumes that have since become their trademark- and leave practically nothing to the imagination, I might add- the trio overcame considerable technical difficulties to put on an entertaining spectacle of a performance (each of the three times I had seen the group, the drummer’s bass drum had become more and more dilapidated, and following that night’s set had essentially become a splintered pile of useless lumber).
Next up was the excruciatingly loud 54-71, whom Deerhoof singer Satomi had apparently brought over with her from Japan. Reminding me of some unholy bastard child of the Jesus Lizard and the Roots, 54-71 sported angular guitar lines, an inhumanly precise rhythm section, and, quite literally, a snot-nose singer who moved spastically and babbled incoherently throughout the performance. 54-70 played for about 45 minutes- a good 20 minutes too many considering that most of the group’s songs were practically indistinguishable from one other- then exited the stage leaving much of the audience either cupping their ears, standing around listlessly or, in my case, both.
The 500-capacity venue was teeming with a sea of sweat-drenched bodies by the time Deerhoof took the stage at around midnight. The four-piece took the stage, tuned up, and kicked out a blistering 45-minute set peppered with favorites from the group’s 6-album catalog. Deerhoof was truly a sight to behold as drummer Greg Saunier held down the traps with captivating force and dexterity, sweat dripping from every orifice in a manner reserved mostly for late night Cinemax movies, guitarists Chris Cooper and John Dieterich contemplatively plucked out jagged harmonies on their axes, all the while Satomi sang, smiled, and bounced up and down playfully with macramé fruit.
There was no question that the emphasis of Deerhoof’s set was on its latest record, Milk Man, and by the second or third song from the record, it seemed obvious to me that not too many people were very familiar with the new tunes. Nevertheless, the band practically beat their newer material over the heads of the unsuspecting crowd and by the end of the night, kids I know who’d never even heard of the band before were clamoring to grab copies of the band’s records before the crowd toppled their merch table over. The only lowlight of the Deerhoof’s set appeared with their surprisingly deflating version of “Giga Dance”, which saw Greg and Satomi swapping their instruments for no apparent reason and playing the song unintentionally in half-time. Regardless of the group’s one bad apple (and in keeping with the food motif I’m going with here) Deerhoof delivered a fantastic performance that tore the paint off the dining hall walls and left the audience beginning for a second helping.
--Jonathan Pfeffer
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