Harlem Shakes/Deerhoof
Went to a pretty cool concert in Columbia, SC this past Thursday. The headlining band was Deerhoof, who I had seen open for the Flaming Lips in Atlanta in September. They're definitely a very unique sound, it's hard to describe, but basically it's drums guitar and bass, and in most of their songs, each individual instrument sounds like it's playing a completely different song, but somehow it all works together to be very melodic. Their lead singer is Japanese, and she speaks broken English, and most of her lyrics don't make a whole lot of sense (for example, they have a song called "Panda" that goes "Panda, panda, panda"). But, they're really good, they have sort of a Sonic Youth sound.
The opening band, the Harlem Shakes, were really good, too. Their sound was a little more normal, kind of pop-punk, but still really good and a little jammy. Really nice guys, too.
I only had two issues with the evening. First, the venue (Headliners, as if you care) sucks. I knew that going in, so it wasn't that big of a deal. This may have been the fault of Deerhoof, but the audio was mixed with way too much bass, so much so that it nearly drowned out the vocals and guitar at some points. And, before the show, they kept playing these ridiculously loud and irritating commercials over the PA for upcoming shows. I get that they wanna advertise, but these ads were about as annoying as those monster truck commercials "SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!!!!!!!!" In addition to this, there were several staff security people walking through the crowd through the entire show. Again, I understand the need for security, but you could just look at these guys and tell they were turbo-jocks just waiting for someone to get out of line so they could bust some ass. It sort of killed the mood. Not to mention they were big tall beefy mofo's, and one of them planted himself right in front of me for about twenty minutes, completely blocking my view.
The other issue was that it was a very hipper-than-thou crowd, which was actually kind of funny. I've never been to a concert where I've seen so many people spend more time looking at who else was in the crowd, rather than the band. I guess it's to be expected, Deerhoof is an artsy/indie band, and that's the crowd they attract. But, when I was getting a beer, and the guy standing next to me was talking about how he once went 35 days without saying anything because there is simply nothing worth saying anymore, I couldn't help but laugh my ass off.
Overall, though, a great show. I think I'm going to go see Of Montreal there next month.
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Originally Posted by dan
