November 17, 2012: Washington, DC
As I laid there trying to fall asleep, the neighborhood was quiet aside from the high pitch ringing that remained in my ears.
Loud, carnival-like, energy-filled, ambitious and often comical. These seem to capture the bulk of the atmosphere at Dan Deacon's Saturday night concert. And after being to more shows than I can remember where DC's audience remained still like statues before their performer, this was refreshing. Some of the videos below will show how Deacon directly inspires (commands? requests?) his audience to move around a bit. To be honest though, after watching the audience dance with fervor through several openers and house audio that included Ludacris and Beyonce, I'm not sure his direction was necessary. It still added to the entertainment value though.
That house audio was clearly curated by Deacon himself as the last song leading up to him taking the stage was the start of his set. The song: Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. It was pretty awesome to hear this song pushed through 9:30's speakers and have the entire crowd sing along. Deacon came in near the end and finished off the vocals.
Most everything I have to say is best articulated by watching the videos below. Since we stood in the balcony, we had a nice view of the floor's antics. True enjoyment of this show would have required being part of those antics, not spectating.
A pair of ear plugs would have been great too. The ear bleeding volume of the show is probably the only significant point to fault. It was really difficult to make out the subtleties of the music and it more often than not sounded like a sonic volcano, hurricaine, tsunami (pick your favorite).