As some of the crowd started to trickle out of the Concorde 2 early, Bradford Cox called after them.
“Hey you guys leaving, thanks for coming but you are about to miss the most bombastic 30 minutes of tunes weve ever played” before conferring with the band and correcting himself. “Err ok sorry actually theres about 4minutes left, because I just been talking for half hour, why didnt somebody stop me?”
The enigmatic Deerhunter frontman and self proclaimed ‘queer, in every sense of the word’ continously drew laughter from the crowd to drown out the catcalls but this was far from a conventional rock concert.
The band started steadily going through tracks from 8th studio album ‘Why Hasn’t Everybody Already Disappeared ?’ before Cox got going, you could maybe sense his disappointment that the venue was only 90% full the day after a big night and apparently a late night at London Roundhouse.
But as I sit here listening to all the songs they didn’t play I can’t help but think the fans that stuck it out on a very wet monday night will have witnessed a true account of a person as well as an
Indie Icon, whether it was his gameshow host turn as he invited fans up for a ‘Grease’ Style dance competition or his personable nature in the way which he engaged with his fans. There wasn’t much to take note of regards to the set played, in fact it was as solid and ethereal as ever until the therapy session kicked in and denied some of the bangers from the back catalogue, but as a glance into the consciousness of the Atlanta Band themselves, it was an ernest and unique and ultimately worthwhile experience.
As Bradford pointed out after another train of thought, ‘We owe you nothing, er well ok actually if you brought tickets actually we do owe you some songs.”
Again everyone was in good spirit, and towards the end of a grueling tour I for one was grateful that even though we didn’t get the band standards we certainly got his undivided attention. Deerhunter end their UK tour by playing Ritz Manchester this evening and The Crossing, Birmingham on Thursday with Cate le Bon in tow before heading into Europe to continue their pursuit of meaning. I had chat with him after the show and he was humble and thankful, he was in great form and I’d say lazy reports of his behaviour being bizarre is down to maybe a lack of understanding of a creative beings contempt for the monotony of it all.
Hopefully this Tour therapy will continue to deliver Bradford and co to somewhere altogether more meaningful.
Ian Daniels
