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Dan Deacon makes the type of sounds that come out of video games when your spaceship defeats the boss of the rainbow world level. If that doesn’t make sense to you, you’ll have your chance to figure it out Saturday, May 3 when WMEB brings Deacon’s joyous electronic cacophony to Soma 36 at the Bear Brew Pub.
“It is the most entertaining show you will ever see by one man and a bolt of plywood with electronics bolted to it,” said Tom Grucza, WMEB’s station manager.
Dan Deacon sometimes dances like a caterpillar that is in immense pain. The sound it would make is also something Dan Deacon makes: synthesizers squelch and men yelp. It is the music you thought you were making back when, at 9 years old, you found a broken Casiotone that could only play bossa nova at the highest speeds. It is the sound of unadulterated awesome.
The station decided on booking Deacon for Soma 36 when some of the station managers caught him performing in New York during the College Music Journalism conference for college radio stations. The station had been looking for a “dancey, party-type show” and knew they had found it when they saw Deacon perform.
“Even if you don’t know who he is, you’ll have a great time, because Dan Deacon makes it that way,” said Grucza. He talked of audience participation and interaction at the show, which Deacon makes possible without anyone cringing. Grucza cites past examples: handing out 1,000 lyric sheets to encourage a sing-along, bringing fans to rehearsals to serve as choirs for certain songs, and his own portable light show at every gig.
Dan Deacon was born in 1981. He makes music come out of electronics that he has drilled onto a piece of plywood. This unlikely rock star, a portly balding man with giant eyeglasses, created a crowd-control issue when he brought his act to the Pitchfork music festival. He has played at the Whitney Biennial in New York City, an event known for bringing together the best cutting-edge art in America. Despite this, Deacon is not going to bombard anyone with over-their-head tricks or boring, stalwart experiments.
Instead, Dan Deacon will make you dance to the sound of a unicorn-on-fire battle to become the king of tea parties. If Dan Deacon had a super power, it would be to dispense rainbow-colored koalas at will, directly into your face.
At least, that is the experience of watching any of his videos – collaborations with video artist Jimmy Joe Roche, which combine ’80s public access television technology with twitching men in dinosaur and tiger costumes.
When asked to explain Dan Deacon, Grucza suggested interested parties “just go to YouTube and search for him.”
WMEB will be selling $5 tickets out of its office, but they will also be available at Bull Moose starting in early April. The full line-up will also include Future Islands out of Baltimore and local favorite Alien Journalism.
“I’m hoping it turns out like Negativland meets the New Deal at the John Bonham Memorial Barbeque,” said Alien Journalism’s Les Rhoda. As for Deacon, “I got into Dan Deacon a couple years ago – I’ve only seen what’s on YouTube.”
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