I am too old to be at a Darwin Deez show. I’ve only been around for two decades and already there are musical doors being slammed in my face. It was dark but I imagine I looked like a lingering geriatric to the hundreds of enthusiastic fourteen year olds that had taken up refuge in the Concorde2. I understand the appeal of Darwin Deez to this particular age bracket: it’s their energetic self-titled first album, their frontman Darwin Smith’s brief spell on the NME cool list in 2010 and their quirky humour. If I had come across the New Yorkers a few years earlier, I might have been able to enjoy the show, but alas, I saw them in 2013 and I thought they were awful.
Darwin Deez’s new album ‘Songs For Imaginative People’ was released a few days after the gig so the set relied heavily on new material. The performance failed to ignite the young and high-energy crowd of loyal fans. The only shreds of life in the audience emerged during the band’s ridiculous intervals of dancing like synchronised morons… and those where only entertaining because they were dancing to other people’s music. The joke rapidly wore off as these little skits kept being repeated between songs and I began to seriously doubt if they were meant ironically. Whatever charm Darwin Deez might have ever held has worn off: the band I watched seemed to have very little left to offer but middle of the road indie and bad haircuts.
The support act, LA-based four-piece Electric Guest, were the surprise of the evening. Their rolling bass, thundering synth and their frontman Asa Taccone’s stage presence make Electric Guest the most exciting new band I have come across in the first two months of this year. Their debut album ‘Mondo’ provides tracks like ‘American Daydream’ – perfect if you want to walk around the streets glaring at strangers and not talking to anyone.
There is a slight possibility, however, that Electric Guest only seem so exciting in hindsight because Darwin Deez were so shockingly boring. I really hope that most of the younger generation of teenagers consuming alternative music aren’t won over by funny dancing as easily as Darwin Deez fans are.
Concorde2, Monday 11th February 2013
Words by Conor Young
