Grace Notes @ Snarkattack

A couple of weeks ago, I had the good fortune to see this amazing crazy musical artist called Dan Deacon, thanks to my chum @futuresandwich. I met up with him and his dapper brother @jawclick, watched the two of them argue and natter like a married couple before we bumped into more Twitterers at the Tote.

It was my first time at the Tote: it’s well-worn, grungy but inviting. It’s all about the music! I lost @futuresandwich and @jawclick for most of the gig, but oddly kept bumping into @lukeayresryan who I’d seen at the entrance madly doing something with his iPhone. I know not what these iPhone users do, not having one.

When Dan finally came on stage, everyone gathered around him. First of all, he wasn’t on the stage proper: he was at the front of it, and people circled him. The gig started with Dan instructing us to do all sorts of things. It was really a grown-up version of the game “Simon Says”. He told us to do things, peppered instructions with anecdotes, introductions, and managed to tame to at least one crowd clown.

Eventually, the music started. Electric, retro in a kind of Texas Instruments “Speak and Spell” way (I had one of those, loved it. Outgrew it quickly, hee hee).

At one point there was some sort of dance-off. You weren’t allowed to refuse to dance which was awesome and no one cared how retarded your dance moves were. It was actually really ace to see so many guys grooving like the most adorable dorks. I wasn’t any better, I assure you.

After the dance contest (I’m still trying to figure out who Dan bet with that he’d have to eat cooked penises if the people dancing let him down with their moves – wasn’t far enough at front), we formed some sort of double gauntlet. Groups of people went to two opposite ends of the Tote, which isn’t exactly huge, then two people in the middle formed a bridge, a la “Oranges and Lemons” (nice British schoolchildren game!). As soon as you went under the bridge, you then went next to the people and became part of the bridge.

The only reason I’m going to the trouble of explaining this is Dan insisted that this Melbourne gig saw the debut of the “double gauntlet”. It was loads of fun.

We also had a sing-along. It was called “Silence Like The Wind Overtakes Me”.

I’ve never been to a gig that’s made me so happy and huggy. Yes, this was minus drugs and alcohol. I have it on good authority that I wasn’t the only person having trouble winding down after that gig.

The atmosphere was infectious, and a lot of the people there were really friendly. It probably sounds completely and utterly dork-arse, but you left feeling like you all shared some amazing, mind-changing experience. Before the drudgery of everyday life returned, the following day.

Here’s the skeleton prop that was lit up and waved around every so often:

Cheers to @futuresandwich, @jawclick, @lukeayresryan and @nedwin for one ace evening. Even if I did feel brainwashed to be exceedingly and unnaturally happy.

He’s definitely not for everyone, I recommend him to people who love to dance and don’t care what they look like when pulling the most dorktastic moves, and also to those who are really open-minded about music, and the definition of music. I can imagine some people thinking he produces noise (and I’m not even thinking about my former housemates who don’t really like post-punk or industrial). At my most arts-student wanky, I’d say that his gigs challenge the notion of what a gig actually is. Meta-gig? Okay, I’ll go now. But he’s ace fun.