Deerhoof Live at The Deaf Institute, Manchester

[Live]

July 8, 2009, 10:35 PM

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Flower spirit ditties of basketball.

Three of the most memorable moments of the Deerhoof show at the Deaf Institute and three Deerhoof track names rolled in to one as my opening statement! Yeah. That’s the height of my creative limit in comparison to what I witnessed and loved at this one particularly fine evening of music at the Deaf Institute in Manchester; a grand, if not a little pretentious venue.

I waited on the stairs, big queue, and narrow staircase. The sound of Brighton band The Sticks resonating through the hallway. We were late, fooled by the blinding sunshine leading you to believe the night is young. At first I was unimpressed by what I heard, a prejudice spawn from frustrated queuing and an unbearable thirst. However, when I reached the stage, noticed the set up of this lo-fi, shy trio of comic music mischief I soon shed all notion of unreasonable snobbery. I was amused by the coy stage presence, the frantic changing of instruments, the attention to detail that dictated whether what I heard, along with the rest of the bemused crowd, was foolhardy lo-fi punk or planned, talented thought about minimal sixties terror bop.

This band has records out through high class and upset the rhythm, to which I hold a profound respect for, (upset the rhythm) as they are responsible for some of the best shows I’ve been to and for finding the talent that drives the new noises emerging in Britain. They do the hard work to ensure that the bands that deserve to be noticed, get noticed. There is a real fashion, for this music, and what particularly annoys me is that, although the original meaning of punk is that ANYONE should be able to pick up an instrument and bash out some music, too many bands today ride upon the fact that they are shit, but cute. These guys were certainly not shit, a little cute, but definitely punk. All playing bass, drums and guitar, sharing their talents or lack of to create a satisfying stage show and dancey, almost surfy rock straight uut of the sixties and opening for Deerhoof.

Touring with The Sticks and next up on stage, four girls from Austin, Texas. Finally Punk. The Sticks joked about how if we thought that they changed instruments a lot, that we were in for a surprise with Finally Punk. And they were certainly not wrong. Every song apart from the last four had the band each taking it in turn to sing, play bass, guitar or drums. I really liked how they all didn’t give a damn about who was more talented on drums, or the better singer. Choosing rather to share it all for fun and a good stage atmosphere. You can see that this band really enjoyed just bashing out some ruckus punk. A Party band. I only felt that if I saw this band play in a dingy little venue, like the one where they would be playing on the next night in Sheffield at my friends gig, I would have been more involved, as the band would have a better crowd interaction.

This music requires some sweaty dancing, lots of boozing and a general want for a party. The crowd of trendy Deaf Institute regulars seemed not to understand what this music was about and I felt a little sorry for the girls going mad on stage. They belonged on the floor, a place to get messy and involved with the crowd, not a four-foot high stage. However, this Mika Miko’ish with a hint of All Girl Summer Fun Band gang of happy lass’s delivered an energetic performance that was packed with excitement. I have seen many all girl bands of this same trend play in bands that, as I mentioned earlier, seem to get away on this notion of ‘we’re punk, but we’re also girls who cant play our instruments but were cute so like us’ farce. It annoys me because the bands who inspired this fashion like Electralane or The Slits were actually both good and talented and must feel put out when this quite feminist genre pack so many contradictions into what they are about. However, Finally Punk delivered something that I wish I were able to see in a small dirty venue with a bottle of cider and a room full of punks.

Between Finally Punk and Deerhoof’s performance, the venue packed out. This was a sell out show and you could certainly feel it now when you notice that nobody is moving, territorial stances taken, ensuring that nobody else would obscure their view of what was to come. For some reason, the sound guys thought it would be a good idea to play opera and classical music as the interval music between performances. I do not mean to offend listeners of these genres as I respect that music greatly but there is a time and a place for it and at an obscure punk rock gig I don’t see why they chose to play it. I could just imagine all of the trendy kids getting to the charity shops the next day and looking for Haydn and Bach records because they heard it at a Deerhoof gig. I suddenly felt a bit sick.

I liked how Deerhoof set up their own gear, no roadies, still not over their heads even though they rightfully demand a lot of respect as an ATP and Kill Rockstars band, two of my favourite labels. I own all but two records from Deerhoof and will happily admit that I love this band, on record at least. The records are full of imaginative noise and simple samples, stripped down guitar lines and trashy drumming. Not to mention the strange, child like singing and daft lyrics that bring a real character to this eclectic, endearing, yet frantic band from San Francisco. Their sound doesn’t seem to follow any pattern of any genre, every song is just Deerhoof.

Their front woman is Satomi Matsuzaki, born of Japan and she is probably one of the best front women I've seen in a band to date. Armed with her Japanese hand traffic control moves, her vintage 62 Hofner ‘Paul McCartney’ bass and her flashing light basketball, we were set for an interesting hour of entertainment. I was worried about reviewing this show [as I have already mentioned] due to my appreciation of this band but I had never witnessed their live performances until tonight. I had missed out on seeing them play with Liars and Deerhunter in London at the ATP event in 2007, but of my friends that did go, they all came back a little disappointed. I was told that Deerhoof change the way they play live occasionally and at this particular night played a set that seemed like they slowed all the tracks down to half speed.

I really wanted to like this band live. I wanted them to be like the record, live. Opening with 'My Purple Past' off of the new album 'Offend Maggie', it was sounding good, I liked it, and the crowd really liked it, relief and enjoyment. My favourite songs from this band are from all the different albums, each one different yet still distinctly Deerhoof so I was hoping for a set of tracks from the whole discography, and that’s what we got! The next song was 'Flower' from the 2003 release 'Apple’o'. This song was played in a much more minimal style than the record. It was not half as heavy; instead it was very technical, trashy and frantic all at once. I guess the fact that ex-guitarist Chris Cohen [who had played on this record] had been replaced by Ed Rodriguez early last year and that the song is 7 years old, you could kind of expect them to want to change the way they play it occasionally even if it is just to keep it fresh for themselves.

I was happy just to be hearing them play this live, even if you had to just listen to it as a new song. Besides, I never realised just exactly how talented these guys were. Sure, they made good music but I didn’t feel like I was watching the trashy band I thought they were. Instead I almost felt like I was watching some renegade jazz school runaways performing what they secretly loved. I suddenly understood why this band is as popular as they are. They were true musicians; Greg Saunier is one of the best drummers I’ve seen since watching The Bad Plus last year. Satomi played bass, jumped off guitar amps and danced in a style that I imagine she learned at crazy kids parties back home in Japan. Rob Fisk had some great facial expressions as he hammered his Wah pedal, intricately mimicking the sound of his guitar with his expressive face as if his body and guitar were one combined entity. However, Ed Rodriguez was the guy who took my attention as he played his guitar with a real thrashy style, seemingly slapping the bridge of his guitar while picking out single notes. He always had the biggest smile on his face, jumped around and even fell to his knees in what was pure enjoyment of the sound they were making as a band.

Next up was 'Basketball Get Your Groove Back'. This is one of the best songs they played live tonight. Satomi asked for the lights to be dimmed and the place blacked out, except from what little daylight remained and a crazy flashing basketball, the prop to one of the most endearing dances from the cute/mad front woman. Her dances consisted of a bizarre mix of aerobic jumping and hopping, erratic robot movements and Japanese traffic control hand signals topped off with some basket ball tricks. I guess the fact that Deerhoof play some songs slightly differently live to on the old records works in good ways too. 'Little Spirit Ditties of No Tone' from the 'Runners Four' album sounded fuller and heavier than beforeand was played with a real accuracy that transformed the crowd into a stomping frenzy. I like it when I watch a band that genuinely love and enjoy playing live for themselves and they love the fact that you, as the audience and their listeners enjoy it as much as they do. No arrogance, just music and dance.

That’s what we want to see and that’s what I saw at this far from disappointing evening of music.

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