Seattle Subsonic - November, 2010
Photos: Deerhunter & Real Estate @ the Showbox
Here are some chintzy photos of Deerhunter and Real Estate; they played together with one-man chill-out artist Casino vs. Japan at the Showbox Market last Wednesday (10/27). I did buy a fancy camera a few months ago, but I’m still not sure how I feel about bringing it to bigger shows like at Neumos or the Showbox. I find it to be easier at smaller venues, like when I went and saw Stephanie and YellowFever at Cairo back in August. Also, time is a bit of a commodity these days for me, so I’m not able to get to these things as quickly as I’d like.
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Anyway, Deerhunter had one of their “good” shows. They sounded rich and tight. Brad Cox was on his best behavior (the rest of the band is always on their good behavior), and save for a few saccharine comments about the songs Lockett Pundt sung (“THANKS, Lockett!!”), mostly he just thanked the crowd and returned their shouted I-love-you’s. No real shenanigans to speak of. Real Estate played a handful of new songs and sounded good, although I kinda feel like they’re the rare band that sounds better outside on a daylight stage instead of a murky showroom. As long as they end every set with “Beachcomber”, though, I’m good.
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Deerhunter started off with Pundt’s driving “Desire Lines” and moved right into “Hazel St.” Unfortunately, that’s the only song off Cryptograms the band seems to like playing live these days. They went into the duo of “It Never Stops” and “Little Kids”, followed by a real nice trio of Halcyon Digest cuts: “Revival”, “Don’t Cry”, and “Memory Boy”. The band went into a few more Microcastle songs after that (“Cover Me (Slowly)”, “Agoraphobia”, “Nothing Ever Happened”—which lasted a good 10 minutes it seemed), before turning out a rendition of “Rainwater Cassette Exchange” so different than the original that it took the first chorus for me to recognize it. Real bouncy and rubber band-like. They ended by showcasing some of Digest‘s better tracks in “Helicopter”—sooooooo good live— “Fountain Stairs”, and finally, ending the encore, the late Jay Reatard tribute “He Would Have Laughed”. I didn’t take notes, so my set list order might be, uh, out of order. Who cares, right? I don’t. Deerhunter is easily one of my favorite bands ever, and sometimes, the devil ain’t in the details.
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Real Estate
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Deerhunter
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