Dirty Projectors
Dirty Projectors are the work of Brooklyn’s Dave Longstreth and, considering the fact that the lineup changes somewhat regularly, seeing them on different tours might provide for not only different sets but completely different dynamics and elements in the songs. This was the second time I have seen them, the first being at the Logan Square Auditorium opening for Xiu Xiu. For that performance, there was another female vocalist as well as a keyboardist, bringing the band members to 6.
This time, there were only four band members total yet they were no less intense and passionate. The far reaching sounds of schizophrenic angels can be heard live and throughout The Getty Address but live there is more of a rock element to the songs. Both live and on album, the songs move in many different directions at once like completely tangential thought processes. The lyrics are just as creative and random as the accompanying music. The Getty Address album is a narrative story following the protagonist Henley as he does such things as speaks with Sacagawea and runs from malls into oceanic parking lots. Just when you thought you’d figured out the next chord progression, it changes into something completely different and unpredictable. The stage presence is also undeniable. Mouths agape, their united choral sounds draw the audience’s attention to the stage immediately. Longstreth seems like he’s literally reaching for something with his vocal chords at times. Yet, at other times, he seems lost with so many directions. At the same time that you want to comfort him, you’re tempted to ask him what on earth he was thinking of when he composed all of those pieces and brought them to life on album. One must figure, if he were to draw it all out chalkboard fashion, it might be a mixture of rabid scribbles and numbers, directions to the wilderness and a stream of consciousness jumble that somehow brings the world into a bizarre perspective you could dance to…if you had noreal sense of rhythm.