By Samuel Sveen

Dan Deacon is super fun and great. He brushed past me in a poncho once before the show while a magician was performing, who was a little boring but did manage to conjure up a real rabbit. I missed the local opening act, GlitterMonks, an IC DJ duo, sandwiched between the magician’s acts, all of which was in last minute place of Nuclear Power Pants. I was totally bummed to arrive and find out we that we wouldn’t be getting down with NPP – I’ve never seen them but their youtube videos and online reviews are pretty, pretty crazy.

As the tension grew and we began pushing in toward the stage, I stuck my camera up for a snapshot of the skull silhouette by Dan’s table set-up. Looking at the flashed image on my camera, the skull turned out to be neon green, and would soon be strobing.

We began with a stretching exercise, reaching toward the sky, counting down from 10, with the number three being replaced by our favorite Lion King character, number two by the Lion King character we most respect, and one by ‘hakuna matata.’

Then the electronic sounds came on and we danced.

We almost immediately rushed the stage and were dancing up behind the Deacon, who placed himself and his table on floor level at the end of the low stage. Lots of lights - lasers, color chases, and even some gigantic strobes that the front row got to pass around – upped the craziness over electronic buzzes and oscillations.

In hindsight, I’m not sure if I could really tell you about any particular song. This one was about a horse. This one was called ‘woof woof’ and was about a dog. Though I did recognize the opening Rattlesnake tune. I’m not up on all the genres and subgenres of electronic or electronica or whatever music, but I’ll describe it like this: A lot of the melodies were carried on bell- or vibraphone-like sounds, and choral synth flourishes kept things incredibly happy over the driving beats and bleeps and fuzzy drones. And his voice was always warped to sound like a possibly comprehensible chipmunk. But to be a little critical, you know, I’d have to say that a lot of the show was just pulsating semi-abrasive bursts lacking melody for several bars worth. Not that that’s a bad thing, and of course it makes the moment when he drops the beat or the melody that much better. Buuuut just sayin’. It reminded me of the Matt & Kim show at Risley a while ago, where every song sounds exactly the same, but you just can’t stop dancing and it’s awesome.  I must say his build-ups were right on – some DJs take FOREVER to drop the beat, but Dan gave it to us just when we needed it. Mmmhmm. Plus the lights were all programmed awesomely, and when the kids in front had their strobes turn on, it was f’in’ sweet.

By the end I made it up front and noticed among his table of effects pedals a tiny little Ipod shuffle. I know from some youtubin’ that he runs an oscillator and has a keyboard, but otherwise I’m not really sure where all the sound comes from and how much is preprogrammed and how much is actual live production. Which is why I’m always slightly skeptical of electronic shows…but that’s my own issue. Anyway, let’s talk about some other crazy stuff he did:

A couple times between songs Dan would come out from behind his table and have the crowd form a giant circle. Inside it, we gave some friend or merch guy or musician or something named Steve a bunch of random advice about Valentine’s Day and animals and having mouths on your legs, in a seemingly improvised session of Dan speaking and us repeating after him. There was also a very enthusiastic dance-off. In a weird thing – that kind of got me wondering about cults – Dan had us all put our hands on each others’ heads, then think about the worst thing we’ve ever done, then forget it and dance.  I was bummed we didn’t get to do the big high five circle, where someone runs around getting high fives from everyone. I asked him about it after the show and it turns out the big pole in the middle of Castaways was not very conducive to such an activity.

Also while I was up front, I noticed a girl dancing on stage right behind Dan who looked really cool in her v-neck and neon lights. So yes, I made sure to include her in some pics, and yes, I planned to use this blog platform as a possible way to meet her. But then after the show she was on her phone the whole time so I couldn’t even talk to her, and she looked kinda young anyway. But then she got in the cab with a bunch of other Cornellians. Huh. So anyway, keep an eye out for this girl for me.

…So I’ve been calling Mr. Deacon Dan, which I think he’d be cool with. Judging by his crazy hipster glasses and beard, his medium-sized potbelly in a neon Steve Urkel t-shirt, and his obsession with electronics and weird noises, I would have expected him to seem just a little weirder. But I talked to him after the show a bit and he was really chill. We took photos and chatted, and I even got his phone number because I knew where the after party was and he wanted me to text him directions. But I was strictly prohibited from calling him when drunk.

(I ended up getting a sandwich and not going to the after party though, otherwise I might have some more low down. Sorry.)

In conclusion: Dan Deacon offers fun and happiness for all, and we all danced our pants off.