When he/they (it’s a band as well as a dude) first
bounced into our lives a couple of years ago Darwin Deez seemed to have novelty
act written all over him/them thanks in part to his/their habit of dancing like
a loon to old pop hits. Yep, like this one...
Happily though he/they have hung around and building
on his/their previously addictive singles, Constellations, Bad Day and Radar
Detector, this year saw the release of the meatier, life affirming new one Free
(The Editorial Me). Sure Darwin still looks a little like a skinny hipster
Hasidic Jew but it’s a great track to blast out at the rest of the office on a Monday
morning (which probably explains why I don’t work in an office any more). Funnily
enough by a stroke of serendipity today, Wednesday 13th February, is
exactly 4 years to the day since I was made redundant. I guess you don’t get
much more ‘free’ than that eh?
First up tonight, and with a bit of a Gnarls Barkley
vibe (no surprise as they’ve worked with Danger Mouse), Electric Guest bring a
little soul, a little funk and a little hip electro wibble to the party. This
is their first major jaunt to the UK apparently but many of their tunes have
such an easy charm that the crowd were unusually receptive. They left out their
awesome cover of Little Dragon’s Ritual Union but the northern soul / Smokey Robinson tinged This
Head I Hold and the funkier Awake made up for it.
More than welcome guests all
round.
Darwin Deez is a real opinion splitter with some
snotty reviewers (as if they know jack eh?) seemingly dissing him for his
skinny hipster look, kooky personality or..shock horror...actually daring to
have fun up there on stage. Balls. Music needs more fun in it these days. You
want serious? Stick CNN on. That’s not to say that Deez is just playing it for
laughs. The son of a mixed race psychologist his new album Songs For
Imaginative People examines such knotty issues as existentialism and in a
recent interview he even admitted to having the odd suicidal thought or two. Blimey. So beneath
the frizzy hair, dance routines and catchy pop there’s clearly a lot more going
on.
Coming on stage the current 4 piece line up kicked things
off in traditional Darwin Deez style with a little dance routine, these are something
that they dropped into the set throughout the night often earning as many
whoops and cheers as the songs. Think Spike Jonze’s iconic Praise You video and
you’ll have some idea of the level of choreography involved. The haters might
not like it but it’s undoubtedly one of the highlights of the set. “Dance like
no one’s looking” wrote Mark Twain and these little skits have that joyful,
just don’t give a damn feel about them. Dance routines aside Team Deez were on
fine form tonight dishing out all of the addictive hits from the debut album
together with material from the hot off the press follow up. Free (The
Editorial Me) made a welcome early appearance, on the surface a bouncy indie
pop hit (part Ben Folds Five part Tom Petty), underneath an existential
anthem...seriously. Neat. It gave Darwin an opportunity to showcase his growing
axe skills too, something that earned the odd shout of “Hendrix” throughout the
gig. Whilst Jimi’s not got anything to worry about just yet there were some pretty
decent solos in there on stuff like Moonlit (the vid below's from another recent show...skip to 2mins 30 seconds in for the solo).
Seemingly DD set himself the task
of learning the six string guitar (trading up from his four string) a while
back and a mere 500 or so hours later, voila. Speaking of learning things it’s
pretty clear that Deez fans love his lyrics judging by the impressive recall many
of them had. His request for them to
sing along to the lost love song Bed Space, dedicated by Darwin “To all the
heartbroken”, received a particularly impressive response for an low key album
track, so you can imagine the reaction the singles got. They’re freaking great
too, kicking off first with the choppy guitar powered Radar Detector mid set with
the star gazing Constellations and revenge anthem Bad Day bringing up the rear during
the encore. Add this year’s Free (The Editorial Me) and you’ve got an
impressive run of clever, catchy pop tunes. I’m guessing that’s not where he’s
going though judging by some of the newer stuff, some of which included the
kind of acid tinged guitar freak out solos that you might expect from Zappa or
a Hipster Hendrix. There’s a more thoughtful, deeper and rockier vibe to this
recent material and it’s not impossible to imagine the dude coming up with some
huge great double concept album in a few years time. That’ll give the reviewers
something to suck on. Like the other slightly more famous (for now at least) Darwin
his evolution’s going to be every bit as fascinating...
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