[Dirty Projectors at The Glass House, Pomona, CA, 9/23/2010 review]
Thursday afternoon I was feeling lazy and distracted and soooo not wanting to go to a concert. However, my boyfriend last minute was swamped with homework and offered me his ticket to Dirty Projectors show for that night over at The Glass House. And given the opportunity to see the band… for free… 10 minutes away… it’s really hard to say no.
Concerts in Pomona are the best. You just jump on i10 for 2.5 minutes, find parking in a snap, and you’re inside. The show began at 8:15 with the incredibly random act of Dominique Young Unique. You may know from Show My Ass fame, as I did. Overall, I’d have to say her performance was so hilariously awful that it was enjoyable. It was not all the fault of the artist though. She was a pretty sick rapper and her back up guys seemed to know what they were doing, but the sound was atrocious. Domnique’s shrill teenage girl voice was about 3 times too loud for the rest of her music, so the crowd was mostly forced to concentrate solely on her vocal skill, which isn’t exactly the highlight of the performance.
Regardless, she stomped around in her stilettos and romper and got the crowd reasonably enthusiastic. She finished about 25 minutes later and we began to wait for the main performance.
Dave Longstreth, the genius behind (and in front of) the band comes out and we all applaud and cheer etc. Dirty Projectors is one of those bands that you have to love every single member of. They’re all apart of these insanely impossible compositions, and I’m always left in awe at the performance. However, I have to say Angel Deradoorian and Dave are my favorites. When the rest of the band left the stage for the “Two Doves” performance, everyone in the crowd got silent as the two sang what I believe to be their most beautiful song. However, not to belittle the rest of the band…. the whole group BROUGHT IT. Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle both did amazing jobs, with their harmonizing croons landing the most awkward notes. What’s incredible is that these chords they sing are seemingly so disruptive and unnatural, but they hit you, standing in the crowd, like the most beautiful noises ever heard. You feel them in your chest, and you try to sing along but can’t even get close to the sound.
The highlight of the show was the closing “Useful Chamber,” where the band went in and out of the song, down to near-silence seemingly whenever Longstreth felt like, and back up to the crashing percussion of Brian McOmber and Longstreth’s “BITTE ORCA, ORCA BITTE.” We all just stood there, waiting through these rises and falls for the imminent finale.
Fortunately, they came back out with a killer 3 song encore, ending with Rise Above, the title track off their 2007 album. The entire set was fantastic, featuring songs across their discography, including some Mount Wittenberg Orca, their EP with Bjork (although she did not make an appearance to my chagrin) and a Bob Dylan cover, both of which were released this year. If you get the opportunity, I encourage you to get to a Dirty Projector performance. They cannot do wrong.
Set List:
I Will Truck
No Intention
F*cked for Life
Knotty Pine
Beautiful Mother
No Embrace
The Bride
Two Doves
Temecula Sunrise
As I Went Out One Morning (Bob Dylan cover)
Remade Horizon
Stillness Is the Move
Useful Chamber
Cannibal Resource*
Fluorescent Half Dome*
Rise Above*
(*Encore)