Giving Respect Where it's Due

Dan Deacon has come a long long way.

People definitely still live and perform in the Copy Cat, and while there have been Deacon sitings in and around Wham City performances, those of you waiting in line for him to start picking up regular gigs at Floristree (hopefully there aren't many of you) can probably find a better hobby.

Since the release of Spiderman of the Rings, Dan Deacon and that Green Skull of his have tornado-ed around the country, touring at first with Gregg Gillis and Girl talk and then headlining his own shows for nearly the past two years. It was on the road that Deacon really snowballed into something bigger than anyone ever expected. It was his approach to a show: playing on the floor, making it a necessity that everyone in attendence was having a good time and dancing, playing through sickness night after night, always bringing his energy....who could resist such a dance party? It happened in basements, it happened in dirty little venues in Baltimore and Brooklyn.

Now, with the release of Bromst to critical acclaim, its happening in some of the country's most recognized and legendary venues. Case and point, Washington D.C.'s 930 club. NPR was there to drop this crazy time-lapse video on you. The guy who writes the blog post for NPR was probably slobbering all over his keyboard when he wrote it, but I'd like to take a few words to voice some criticms.

First of all, and Dan, I know you're out there and this is no shot to you, we should all think about what has changed in his touring syle and what made him. Deacon has to play on stage now, the venues are too big and he might even be made to do so. I'd call that a negative. Also, Bromst, while compositionally beautiful, lacks that homeade quality that drew so many indie-underworld-scraping music/art/hipster freaks to Spiderman. He's got a 15-piece band, and that's cool, but to me, the Crystal Cat just isn't the same that way.

Again, this is not to discredit what seems like a much-needed and natural progression for Deacon with all this fame being thrown out at him. I would just be the lone critic here voicing a little apprehension as Deacon embraces his degree in musical composition by taking on a band which will make the creation of his ideas a bit more human and subject to mistakes. I'm not usually one to advocate for the computer, but in this case, it was working for me.