Berbati's Pan is typically a 21 & over venue, however, tonight it opened its doors to attendees of all ages. They beefed up security and used ropes to keep the kids away from the alcohol.
"This song is about freedom. Freedom from barriers!"
Later, when it was time for the encore, Deerhunter raised the stakes. Reeling from a wildly energetic set alternating between shoegaze punk and droning ambient bliss, and clearly upset about having performed essentially in front of a large void, they went for broke. After knocking out the one-two punch of "Cover Me (Slowly)" and "Agoraphobia" from Microcastle, the band had an on-stage meeting which ended with bassist Josh Fauver mouthing the words "Just do it" to each bandmate, one by one.
It turns out, they were debating whether or not to invite all of the front rows on either side of the audience up on stage to dance and play their instruments during the last song. Us concert-goers witnessed something great tonight: A band making a decision and saying, "OK, let's never get invited back to this venue again." The age segregation at Barbati's Pan tonight is a shining example of the unfortunate effects of liquor license regulations on underage music fans. This particular venue took measures to try to cater to fans both under and over 21, which of course is a good thing. But then, of course a band like Deerhunter is going to make a statement on how absurd the whole thing really is.
Security attempted to boot fans off stage at first, but then gave up trying after realizing that they wouldn't know which side of the barrier to send any given person. So, attendees of all ages instead remained on stage, dancing and singing, and eventually taking over instrument duties completely. Aside from their loud, intense, amazing run-through of all their best material (including brand new songs from their as-of-yet-untitled fourth album), the Deerhunter concert tonight was a showing of civil disobedience at its finest.
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