Photo Credit: Stereogum
After the initial scare last month with Brooklyn’s Dirty Projectors last minute cancellation of their Toronto and Montreal dates due to a serious car-accident on the road, last night’s show at Lee’s was not only a joyous make-up show, but a huge sigh of relief to see that the band is well recovered from the incident and still kicking ass live.
If one thought The Dirty Projectors were great on record, their live performance was a whole new level of greatness. On record, The Dirty Projectors illustrate stunning art musically through its sharp guitar riffs, off-beat art-rock cool and some of the most impressive male and female vocals I’ve heard in years. Yet on record, this sound feels trapped in a state of two-dimensionality.
Live, the band punches through to a whole new dimension. Everything feels more chaotic, but in a positive, concentrated manner – good chaos for the ears. Guitars were more electric, energy was higher and the audience was eating up every minute of this. Whether this was their first time ever listening to the band or their fifth time seeing the band live, everyone at Lee’s last night was mesmerized.
In my strange attempt at summarizing and using metaphors, the Dirty Projectors on record is like a great children’s novel, but a live show by The Dirty Projectors is like a mind-blowing pop up book; you can’t help but be amazed every time.
Highlights included the romantic opener, “Two Doves” featuring Angel Deradoorian and Dave Longstreth and the truly astonishing harmonies of “Remade Horizon”. In the words of a friend of mine who had never heard the band (live or on record), “Are those girls singing that part? No way; that is unbelievable. I have to call my boyfriend so he can hear this! They’d have to be twins to do that.” – and she did, in fact, call her boyfriend afterwards, with a look of bewilderment permanently painted on her face for the rest of the night; as everyone else surely was as well. I now deem that the “Dirty Projectors” look.
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