Dan Deacon… Finally
February 18th, 2010 | Published in Music
By Christopher Vaughan
Visiting Alumnus Dan Deacon will be playing a rescheduled show this Saturday at The Stood after canceling a November date due to back problems. Thankfully, he is recovered and able to conduct a night of feverish dancing and motivational crowd participation.
The vast majority of current students were not actually here when Dan Deacon attended SUNY Purchase, but he is one of the first people that comes to mind when relaying to anyone the long list of Purchase’s highest achievers. His previous set date to play was November, 16th but after being diagnosed with acute sciatica he took time off from his constant touring to recoup.
He will be playing in Whitsons, the small venue in The Stood, which is the ideal setting for Deacon to play amidst a sweaty sea of students dancing crammed together. This is possible because Deacon has been performing his most recent shows solo, without his ensemble that accompanied him touring for his latest album,Bromst. His style has developed since releasing Bromst; most songs on the album are much more calculated and include a greater range of instrumentation. His live set has not become restrained in any sense. Songs like “Crystal Cat” and “Wham City” continue to show convulsive bursts of energy. Everyone should be prepared to participate, because a Dan Deacon show is very physical. He enlists people in the crowd to exercise and stretch on command, mimic dance steps and create human tunnels.
This show will be one of the only times to see Deacon in an intimate location, later in the year fans will be lucky to catch a glimpse of his sparkled hat when he plays Bonnaroo Festival, Donaufestival and MtyMx Festival. These festivals, each in a different country, all indicators of how Dan Deacon has broken away from the small scale of the electronic bands that he once was associated with like Ponytail, Gang Gang Dance and High Places. Last summer he joined Deerhunter and No Age (both have played at Purchase) for the “No Deachunter” tour, traveling the US with stops at major venues including The Pool Party in Brooklyn.
Nuclear Power Pants, also originally scheduled to play in November, will open for Deacon. Like Deacon, Nuclear Power Pants are from Baltimore and this is clear from their style of hazy electro-funk layered by noisy production. Their comical lyrics and brightly-colored props and outfits will be an appropriate and danceable precursor to Deacon’s set. The Purchase psych-drone band Images will also be playing, beginning a night that will likely leave students in a blissful state of exhaustion.
