Dan Deacon Blows Minds At Brooklyn Bowl

Dan Deacon brought his totally unique brand of surrealist electronica to Brooklyn Bowl on Tuesday night to the mind-blown masses packed into an exuberant and sweaty dance floor. For those who have never seen a Dan Deacon show, words can never fully explain his spell of synthesized magic he casts over an audience, as his music and shows are something truly otherworldly. He’s a modern mastermind that has finally paid down on the many promises that decades of electronic musicians have made and that few have ever accomplished. He produces a beat that hypnotizes you into a dancing frenzy, he creates unearthly sounds that no casual instruments could never capture in the real world, and merges different genres into a mind-bending sound so unique that anybody can easily say they’ve never heard that melody in their waking life.

DD

Dan went from obscurist weirdo, to noted genius on the rise several years back with the 2009 breakthrough masterpiece Bromst. Then rose to true genius artist level of revered classical music status with compositional skills in the likes of a modern day Phillip Glass or Steven Reich with 2012’s America, and just this year released another master opus with a more demonically beat-oriented Gliss Riffer, but even as he has been touring giant venues with other big names in absurdist music like Arcade Fire and most recently Miley Cyrus and the Flaming Lips’ Her Dead Petz production for which you got to see Dan somehow conduct entire stadiums into crazy dancing activities, it was great to see him back in a more intimate setting to get your sweat on to.

Another expert grouping of absurdity and brilliance by the name of Prince Rama opened the show with a mouthwatering taste of day glow-lit, Monster Energy –fueled part dance-party, part performance art creation. With wisps of Kate Bush and Laurie Anderson in their creation, their sound ends up whipping around like a centrifuge of sweet and spicy that spins you into a fiercely dense energetic tizzy. The sister duo of frontwoman and muti-instrumentalist Taraka Larson and percussionist extreme Nimai Larson prove a real double threat to the senses while Ryan Sciaino adds a nice mutli-instrumentalist fullness to the instrumentation in this Brooklyn trio tour-de-force. Taraka might have the deepest of baritones when gabbing with the audience, but when she starts to sing, her voice is like an angel frenching you full-on. Their new album X-Treme Now is out now and would go great with that energy drink and extreme sport you’re playing.

Prince Rama

The Baltimore-based electronic architect supreme originally from just around the way in Long Island by the name Dan Deacon strolled out on stage to the hilarious fond memory-inducing Little Mermaid song “Under the Sea.” Trolling a bemused crowd with jokes and deep thoughts before getting the show on its way, even bringing one his long-time friends like artist Marlon Ziello to the attention of the crowd as he expounded on awkwardness and humorously made light of the fact that this show was being held at a bowling alley, which is the most ridiculously loud sport to put next to a concert hall with the exception of maybe a carnival gun range with big popping balloons. His shows are always part social experiment, heavy on activities that get a crowd interacting and positive vibes flowing, like clearing a large swath across the center of the floor for dance battles.

Dan Deacon

DD

DDv

DD

DD

Still, jokes and hilarious goings-on aside, his shows are far more than just hokey weirdness, as his music always reigns supreme. Vocal distortions and layered synthesized sounds were driven to amazing alternative realities with his drummer compadre who slowly build up hypnotic rhythms to crashing crescendos and swelling summits to the point that all that witness him can’t help but getting taken away by all the hallucinogenic flavors he produces. Although at points it felt like taking a time machine back to the raves of the early 90’s, Dan truly generates something fully unique and far more complex than any of those DJs of yesterdays could reach, and he made my last show of the year one of my personal all-time dance party memories.