polaroids of androids

Dan Deacon @ Oxford Art Factory - 22/02/2008

Dan Deacon is the midpoint between a middle-aged accountant and a crazy homeless man. Or maybe a middle-aged accountant who fell in with 'the wrong crowd' and ended up dabbling in some insider trading and thus ended up homeless when shit hit the air conditioning vent.

I mention his appearance only because I am sure I wouldn't find his music so darn appealing if he resembled a 'hunk' like my friend Nicholas Cross who many have described as 'a fine piece of meat'. He eats steaks three times a day and fills the time in-between drinking special extra strong man beer. In contrast, Dan Deacon plays space invaders all day, makes his own instruments, builds insane light configurations and brings the ruckus with a show that is around 99.7% more entertaining than any other show - ever.

Deacon played his first Australian show last night at Oxford Art Factory. He blew the preverbal socks off me and all that were in attendance with an hour of the most insanely random and unashamed party jams performed on this continent in some time. Not only is he an incredibly charismatic character, but his unique live show that consists of him playing amongst the crowd and re-creating his songs using a series of homemade instruments - including an Ipod Shuffle duct-taped to a banana - creates a fantastic connection between what he is serving up and those that are willingly devouring it.

I liked Deacon before I saw him last night, but when I left I thought he was right up there with David Copperfield, Mr Methane and Pigeon John as one of the greatest entertainers in the history of the universe.

The crowd was really excited about everything!

Sometimes even a little bit too excited.

Get away from me yo crazy bitch!

At one point he instructed everyone to participate in a crazy tunnel building congo line thing. The crowd, who were surprisingly unpretentious, obliged (like they had any choice!) and for a couple of songs Deacon performed almost without any audience as everyone ran around the room like 5 year old kids who had found their parents' acid stash.

Dan Deacon will also be appearing at the Laneway Festival as it travels around Australia over the next couple of weeks. Although I imagine that his performance might be slightly tamed by the restrictions of being at a festival I still highly recommend that you check him out. For the Sydney leg he will be playing on the Reiby Place Stage at around 5.50.