If You Memorize The Words They Will Show You The Way

Deerhunter @ Webster Hall 9/19/2013
Octet / Neon Junkyard / Don’t Cry / Revival / Like New / Desire Lines / Hazel St. / T.H.M. / Rainwater Cassette Exchange / The Missing / Helicopter / Sleepwalking / Back to the Middle / Monomania / Twilight at Carbon Lake // Cover Me (Slowly) / Agoraphobia / He Would Have Laughed

Deerhunter “Neon Junkyard”

I saw the current lineup of Deerhunter play at the Governors Ball festival over the summer and that was quite good, but it was sort of a compromised experience in that I was up to my ankles in sticky mud and, more importantly, Deerhunter is simply not a band that is meant to be seen and heard outdoors in the middle of the afternoon. This show was the ideal way to experience them – in a medium size club with an intense light show that kept the band mostly in silhouette aside from when the strobes were flashing, and you could get a good look at the dress Bradford was wearing. It was very dramatic, and the band played every song a bit more epic than on record – this was particularly noticeable on songs like “Neon Junkyard,” “Don’t Cry,” and “Sleepwalking,” which seemed to expand greatly in terms of implied scale. Even in terms of Deerhunter shows – and I’ve seen many very good ones – this set was particularly powerful and emotional. When I left the venue I thought for a bit about whether there’s any other contemporary band that does art/shoegazer rock nearly as well, and really, there isn’t any competition. We’re lucky to be around in the prime of this band.

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