The Echo & Echoplex (Venue Partner)
Echo - 1822 Sunset Blvd
Echoplex - Enter at 1154 Glendale Blvd
213.413.8200
This event has passed.
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Dan Deacon @ ECHO
- When
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Thursday Oct 15, 2009 (8pm)
- Where
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- Price
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$10
- Links
“Madcap songsmith Dan Deacon usually performs solo, convincing sweaty audience members to engage in dance-offs, group chants, and mass fits of glee. Currently, though, he is carting around a gaggle of Baltimore-based musicians in a veggie oil-powered bus, in support of his new record, Bromst. The conservatory-trained musician carefully arranged the new tracks for live performance by an ensemble, which includes drums, strings, and percussion, in addition to his usual soundboard and synths.”
Ali Gitlow, Flavorpill
Dan Deacon || Listen
With Bromst, Deacon not only shucks the "wacky" thing, he replaces it (and those gadgets) with virtuosity of composition and an array of instruments. This album represents his transformation from Baltimore club freak to overstimulated kin of Brian Eno and Cornelius. These are thick songs built around left-field ideas, positively fat with melodic content—physically shake the record, and sheets of notes would probably spray out like a colorful rain of tonal Skittles. Much of this is due to the use of a digitally rigged player piano capable of generating acoustic notes faster than any pair of human hands, but Deacon doesn't lean on this. Rather, he writes extra-dense for the odd instrument, then spends as much (or more) effort shaping the atmosphere it inhabits. With most songs breaking six minutes, it's challenging to digest individual pieces—"Red F" has those skittering percussive rolls, "Snookered" recalls Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy, "Surprise Stefani" feels like Steve Reich—but it's surprisingly easy to "get" Bromst as an album. Deacon has always said that he writes within his physical means (then: homemade equipment, sweltering clubs; now: actual studios, actual venues). A word of advice for anyone who crosses Dan's path: Give this man anything he asks for. - The Onion (A.V. Club)
with: Nuclear Power Pants
8pm / $10 / all ages
