Girl at the Rock Shows

Joy is having your only baby niece give you a two-tooth smile when you see her, rather than screaming her head off as she has done in the past. Joy is also watching a bunch of strangers form a tunnel for hundreds of other strangers to dance through outside of a local venue. Both of those things happened on Friday, making this past Friday one that I will not soon forget.

Things at The Fine Line in downtown Minneapolis started with Material. Material is a local electronic music project that doesn’t just create music; they create art. When it came to the sound of Material, there were moments that I found hard to digest. There were pieces of the art that didn’t make sense to me and left a sense of clashing tension in the air, but there were other moments that made my heart soar and had me completely lost in the atmosphere that they were creating. Mostly concealed by a small screen in front of tables of electronic doo-dads that I will never fully understand, this was the kind of set that leaves you no choice but to focus on the music, and although I had a hard time doing that at times, I loved it. It made me think. I found myself traveling down different paths and journeys depending on what aspect of the music I honed in on at any given time. This all sounds very dramatic, I know, but that was kind of the point of what they were doing. It felt like Material wanted to give you some joy and pleasure, but, at the same time, leave you with questions and a wandering mind. It was a cool opening set, but it did nothing as far as helping me figure out what was going to come next because, truthfully, I had no clue what I was getting into on Friday night.

I chose this show on a whim. My partner had mentioned that this was a show he was super excited for, and why should he have all the fun? I knew nothing about Dan Deacon. I knew the name but couldn’t tell you much, if anything, about his background. Based on the electronic madness that Material had started the night off with, I had some idea of what I thought was going to happen next, but truthfully, nothing could have prepared me for the magic that is seeing Dan Deacon live.

First, a little background. Dan Deacon is a Baltimore-based recording artist and performer. He has five full-length albums out there, along with many film and television scores. I wouldn’t say that he’s a household name, but I would say, based on the nearly sold-out audience (literally maybe twenty tickets shy of selling out), he has a cult following, and that following is alive and strong here in the Twin Cities. His sound, like that of Material, was hard for me to understand at times. There were moments when his almost Alvin & the Chipmunks styled vocals were a bit too much and moments when the beat (which was being produced by drummer Jeremy Hyman who was nothing short of a freaking beast behind the kit) didn’t seem to match the intricacies layered on top to me but, at the same time, there wasn’t a single moment of Dan’s set that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy.

I should probably talk more in-depth about the music. Honestly, Dan Deacon is a musical genius, and you understand that within the first song of a set from him, but that wasn’t the biggest takeaway from Friday night for me. For me, the biggest takeaway was the energy in the room. It didn’t take long for Dan’s larger-than-life personality to take over the room. He’s a commanding figure in a way, but, at the same time, also a super personable kind of guy. I’ve never met him. I didn’t meet him on Friday night yet, but about twenty seconds into his time on the Fine Line stage, I felt as if I had known him for years and was just reconnecting with an old high school pal after a very long pause. He was charming and hilarious as he addressed the audience throughout the night. It was a mix of self-deprecating humor and stories about his life that just happened to be funny, whether because of what the story was or just the way that Dan told it. I honestly don’t know the last time I laughed so hard at a show.

I’m not one for crowd participation. It makes my hands sweaty and gives me all kinds of anxiety. Typically, when a musician starts to walk through an audience looking for a participant, I quickly hold my camera up and do this whole non-verbal, “sorry, I’m shooting the show for you, so I can’t be a part of your funny business.” It’s instinct at this point, so when Dan mentioned that during his second or third (I honestly don’t know which one it was) song that there was going to be some crowd participation, I instinctively reached for the camera hanging from my neck to seem busy. At first, it was just a reflex, but then it turned into a real job. Dan asked the audience to form a void in the crowd and informed everyone that there was going to be a dance-off. It was to start with the three people that he randomly selected (who all happened to be wearing shirts with no sleeves), but then, after a few seconds, those people were to tap others in. You didn’t have to participate, but as Dan explained, you will participate. He was right. Everyone in this room was dancing and smiling their way through this particular portion of the show, and I honestly felt like people were just hoping to get tagged into the dance-off rather than hiding on the outskirts of the audience like I would have expected.

There were many other moments like this throughout the show where it felt more like a social experiment than just a concert. Dan Deacon really made the room feel like a community, which, I know, is something I say a lot about many shows, but there was something different here. Out of all of the moments where that feeling of love and community was the the forefront was when Dan had the audience form a human tunnel (you know, when you arch your arms up and meet palms with a complete stranger a few feet across from you) that led all the way outside of the venue and down the alley to a side door that is rarely used. I watched from the outside of this tunnel as it formed, as people danced and shimmied their way through it, and then, eventually, as it disappeared back into the venue. This led to a bunch of puzzled looks from the people leaving the Timberwolves game that had just ended a couple of blocks away, but it led to an ear-to-ear smile on the rest of the people and me at the show that never disappeared. Honestly, it’s the morning after the show, and I still have that cheesy, toothy grin on my face.

I’m not going to say that my partner won on Friday night by urging me to check out this show, but I will say that there seems to be life before you see Dan Deacon and then life after. I’m absolutely thrilled to be on the other side of that and hope that if you haven’t already, you make the trip, buy the ticket, and go see this fantastically talented and obnoxiously lovely man live.

Line Up:

Dan Deacon

Material

Venue: Fine Line

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 39

Crowd Surfers- 0

Stage Divers- 0

Dance-ability- 13 out of 10

Amount of Beer Spilled On Me While Walking Around- $0

Broken Bones- None Noticed

Spotted Flying Through The Air- Nothing

Fights- None

Pukers- 0

Passed Out People- 0

Celebrity Sightings – None

How Many Times I’ve Seen These Bands Before (or at least how many times I can remember)-

Material – 0

Dan Deacon – 0

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