Dirty Projectors – Scala, London, 02/04/09

I remember a couple of weeks ago telling a friend of mine that I listen to an awful lot of Dave Longsteth’s project, Dirty Projectors (“But why? They suck”). Pretty much consistently for the past 12 months now since I got unexpectedly entangled by the wonderful Rise Above, the Dada-esque conceptual take and ode to the Black Flag record Damaged (woah, that doesn’t sound at all pretentious, does it?).

“His voice is annoying as hell! Like a cat being strangled!”. Yes, but I find it unique, alright! It kind’ve reminds me of a Prince but with the range of Rufus Wainwright. Sometimes it borders on soulful Beyoncé pop affectations and that alone could be cheesy, but mixed with the other vocals it becomes totally original. So, sure it’s a bit annoying sometimes,but I’m a tad excited about tonight. No one is going to kill my buzz.

I find myself unsurprisingly down the front, and take seat on the stage, watching the people filter in. The first thing you would notice when walking in is this array of musical instruments and gadgets, including laptop, bongos, cymbals and even a pile of white rocks, lying right in the middle of the crowd area, spotlighted no less. The crowd naturally form a circle around it.

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It turns out, this wasn’t a huge blunder by a lazy roadie who just couldn’t be arsed to set up properly. No, this mixed bag of assortments belonged to Lucky Dragons (known to his mother as Luke Fishbeck) and he was a pleasant surprise. I’m not kidding when I say that his set was the perfect opener. He’s like an metal conductor for noise as he openly asks for audience participation. He creates a premise via electronic loops before handing out the various gadgets and wooden sticks and egg shakers out to the people surrounding him and sampling the subsequent mesh of noise. At one point, he connects every one with colourful wires that were vibration sensitive and brought various audience members to touch the receptors and collaborate in creating a new music dynamic with each new interaction. People are encouraged to form new connections with one another to form a new frequency and it never seems awkward and uncomfortable that people are doing this with strangers. Every one seems to be smiling infact. It’s almost as if people have been longing for this kind of communal spirit with their anonymous gig-going neighbours.

Shit, then, as if appearing from thin air, I see Creepy Spanish Guy. He’s in the crowd taking part in the whole audience participation deal. He keeps looking over at me. I fumble with my camera a little, nervous. He’s then surrounded by two hawt indie girls. Wearing thick rimmed specs and Arab scarves and everything. Holding each others hands and shoulders and stuff. I feel a little envious, if I’m perfectly honest. I would love to hold Creep Spanish Guy too… sigh.

And on to Dirty Projectors! Now fleshed out to a six piece I noticed, they open with some new ones from their forthcoming “n00b”, Bitte Ocra and by Jove, they sounded tighter than a knatts chaff. The harmonies all flowing and intertwining so effortlessly with one another. Like some kind of woven pattern needlework thingy. They drop ‘Cannibal Resource’, ‘Remade Horizon’, ‘Temecula Sunrise’ and ‘Stillness Is the Move’. All sounding completely instant and showing deep progression than anything they did on Rise Above. ‘Temecula’ particlarly sounded deliciously funky with it’s heavy bass and trickling guitar riff. And well ‘Stillness’ was just plain bizarre. Guitarist Amber Coffman taking full control of vocal duties and I swear, at one point if you closed your eyes, the soul of Mariah Carey was present, complete with vocal acrobats and high pitch screeches. I don’t know quite I felt about that… Who am I kidding? I loved it.

They played a couple of old tracks with just a four piece, including a nice little medley of ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’ mashed up with ‘Thirty & Miserable’. Sadly though, these golden oldies just didn’t take off. Maybe it was the PA system affecting the sound levels but the harmonies became almost inaudible unfortunately. Shame that. They come back to a stop start rendition of ‘Rise Above’. Dave can’t really hit the note. He’s really annoyed at something. Maybe the sound. I heard he’s quite intense about sound levels and ensuring it’s perfect. I would be the same if I was a musician. He wants to stop and play another but the crowd don’t let him. It get’s a bit awkward too. “Gee, you guys really like that song huh?”. Yes, we do Dave. Don’t be such a lame-wad and give us what we want, dammit. He eventually caves in and finds the right key, but clearly struggles with the vocals. It’s almost as if the new material had let him off the leash, but performing older, cover songs were shackling and even, dare I say, strangling him. . To the future I say. To Bitte Ocra.

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Set list:
Cannibal Resource
Remade Horizon
Temecula Sunrise
Stillness Is the Move
Fucked for Life
Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
Thirsty and Miserable
Fluorescent Half Dome
Knotted Pine
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Rise Above