When I was a lot younger I used to sit on the floor of my tiny bedroom with my sister’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ album on tape and my Dad’s tape player. The tape player in question had 2 (yes 2!) tape-decks on it to allow you to copy between them. This also meant that it had the glorious ‘high speed dub’ function! I used to spend hours playing about with this, slowing down and speeding up the Disney classic until my rather annoyed Dad would take it off me and return the album to my somewhat disturbed sister.
Happy times!
So when Dan Deacon began his set to the sound of ‘Under The Sea’ I knew ALL the words and could probably sing them double time too. And so began the best gig I’ve been to in years.
Trying to explain to those who weren’t there precisely why 110 people stuck around in a sweltering basement for over an hour last Thursday night, why 110 people yelled “Horsey! Horsey!” over and over again, why 110 people screamed from tiny lyric sheets for 12 mintues…is a bit hard. Was it Mr. Deacon’s hilarious between song banter? Was it because, from the very start everyone was brought into Dan Deacon’s very odd world of Aerosmith guns and audience participation? Or was it because, when it came down to it, house lights off, PA up, the sound of Dan Deacon was the closest I’ve ever felt to being inside dance music.
I think it might have been as ‘The Crystal Cat’ came pounding out, when the crowd made its first involuntary lunge toward the source of the sound. Or perhaps it was earlier, being ordered to stare only at strangers during an almost ritualistic countdown to the start of the gig. God, maybe it was the first time we all heard Woody Woodpecker in our collective rooms on our collective stereos. Whenever it was, whatever it was, I’ve never seen so many people so damned happy to be in one place together.
I’ll leave it to the comments box for personal highlights but mine was, inevitably ‘Wham City’. Due to a slight (and possibly deliberate) mis-understanding I’d printed out 110 A6 lyric sheets for the epic track and then proceeded to force them on everyone who came through the door. Little did I know that Dan hadn’t planned on playing it on his UK tour. Thankfully, some dry fingered souls found it on his iPod and, swayed by the overwhelmingly enthusiasm of the crowd, he obliged with 12 minutes of pure green-skull-illuminated bliss only enhanced by a sweaty chorus of delirious fans singing in unison at the tops of their voices.
Seven and a half hours later I was on a train to London, ‘Spiderman of the Rings’ playing on my headphones, trying not to cry with joy at the memory of the night before, as men with laptops looked at me strangely.
Happy times!
all photos courtesy of www.thedirtysnake.com…except Sebastian. He’s used completely without Disney’s permission.
