Wow, what can I say. “Blown away” would be a could place to start in attempting to describe the experience of a Dan Deacon gig.
I had heard some of his music a few months back and couldn’t get enough of it. I missed the show he piut on last time he was in town but was sure to get myself on down to Whelans on Wexford St to witness one of these spectacular shows. Your Only Massive did a great warm up for Dan and got the crowd to shake their cool away in reference to people who are “too cool” to dance. Luckily I had located mysself on the balcony so was kinda excused! It’s not that I don’t dance, it just well, you know… I’ve gotta be really into it or someone on the dancefloor! Anyway I wished I was down there in the thick of it for this gig. It was fantastic. It was great to see a level of crowd interaction with and artist like this, it is certainly something new and unique. Dan inspires you to get on down, have a laugh and be part of a crowd. He sets up on the floor as opposed to the stage and gets people to get in close. He controls all the lighting for his set-up and the lighting is about as basic as it gets. A glow in the dark skull and a spotlight that are synced with the music provide all the light needed and also create the atmosphere to keep the crowd engaged.

So here I present to you a little video clip of the night. It is ten minute quick cut of Dan Deacon’s amazing show in Dublin on December 2nd 2007. The audio quality is awful from the digital camera i was using so please don’t take that as an indication of the sound quality. The camera just doesn’t like the bass! The sound was fantastic (spot on Gerry!)… the atmosphere was electric. Dan is the Man.

There was lots more good footage but it’s best to keep it short here as the sound quality does not do it justice. A good idea maybe would be to turn down the video sound and listen to a better audio recording by Dan over it. I also took a small number of photos, the best of which is above, check out the rest on my flickr.

So here’s the video…

and the music video for Crystal Cat…

Nialler9 has posted about both shows, so head on over there and check out his reviews and some courtesy mp3s.
There is a great interview / podcast over at The Sound Of Young America that you should check out too

Saul Williams’ new album, “The Inevitable Rise Of Niggy Tardust” was released yesterday online in a similar fashion to the last Radiohead album a few weeks back. I’d heard a bit about this and being a fan a Saul’s and it’s notorious producer Trent Reznor, well I was pretty much sold before even hearing it. I paid the five bucks knowing it was going to a deserving artist and that many middlemen were being cut out of this transaction. Yesterday the download link arrived in my inbox and I give it a spin. I am impressed, very impressed. I did cringe a little when I seen there was a cover version of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” on the tracklisting but it turned out to be a good track. The album has a great energy to it and even though I don’t like to compare music so much to others, sometimes it is the best way to describe it. So this album has a combination of the best elements of Jimi Hendrix, NIN, Ministry, Gill Scott Heron, NWA , Public Enemy, Faith No More to name just a few flavours I hear here. But all in all this is Saul. My top 3 on this are Break, WTF? and No One Ever Does. But that’s likely to change! I recommend this.

Also check out his open letter to Oprah on his myspace blog for a look into the inspired mind of Saul Williams. These are profound words from a great human being and it has received an influx of positive comments and well wishes. Read it and keep.

Big up to the man, the poet.

From the website…

The wall of sound that we’ve created is tagged with such graffiti that a passerby would seek out doors and ways to ENTER. Once inside a world defined by dreams come true they’d find aligned with the simplest act of sharing what we treasure. Most people aren’t aware of the world of art and commerce where exploitation strips each artist down to nigger. Each label, like apartheid, multiplies us by our divide and whips us ’til we conform to lesser figures. What falls between the cracks is a pile of records stacked to the heights of talents hidden from the sun. Yet the energy they put into popularizing smut makes a star of a shiny polished gun.