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Just after five in the afternoon, Bradford Cox stood onstage at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco and asked what would be the most important question of the evening. Standing there, with his Fender Strat slung across his waist and his bandmates at his side, he peered out into the empty room.
"Is that loud enough?" he asked.
Ughhh, yeah. As anyone who has seen Cox's band will tell you, it's always loud enough at a Deerhunter show, and that was certainly the case at this highly buzzed about Secret Show. Cox and his bandmates were in San Francisco for the annual Noise Pop Festival, where they had kicked off the week-long indie music marathon the night before in front of a thousand people.
At the Rickshaw, though, Cox and his bandmates would play to a mere three hundred and would share the stage with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, a beautifully melodious new indie rock band from Brooklyn. When the members of the up-and-coming act took the stage, even they must have been surprised by the response from the Rickshaw crowd.
Immediately, the few hundred fans inside began cheering and singing along to songs like "Young Adult Friction" from The Pains' excellent debut (which hit stores just a few weeks ago). Near the end of their set, The Pains turned out a winning rendition of "Kurt Cobain's Cardigan," a fuzzed out indie pop song named after the late Nirvana frontman.
This is a band that people will be talking about a lot over the next year and, as frontman Kip Berman admitted onstage, this was their first show in California. We were honored to be a part of it.
After the Pains' set, Deerhunter took the stage and, of course, cranked up the amps to eleven. Over the next hour, they played songs from their entire catalog, including 2008's critically beloved Microcastle. "Never Comes" was bashed out during their epic hour-and-a-half set, as was Microcastle's first singles, "Agoraphobia."
Throughout, Cox made off color jokes about his nick names for female genitalia (you had to be there), but in the end, the band's performance felt more like an epic arena show than a tiny all ages performance. At one point, Cox even began talking onstage about one of his musical heroes, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine. That band was known for taking smaller club shows and making them feel like epic arena rock performances.
And, at least on this night, that's exactly what Cox and his bandmates were able to do. So then, thanks to them, as well as The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, the staff at the Rickshaw Stop and the people at Noise Pop for helping make this show happen. You rule.
As for us, we'll see you at the next show!
"Is that loud enough?" he asked.
Ughhh, yeah. As anyone who has seen Cox's band will tell you, it's always loud enough at a Deerhunter show, and that was certainly the case at this highly buzzed about Secret Show. Cox and his bandmates were in San Francisco for the annual Noise Pop Festival, where they had kicked off the week-long indie music marathon the night before in front of a thousand people.
At the Rickshaw, though, Cox and his bandmates would play to a mere three hundred and would share the stage with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, a beautifully melodious new indie rock band from Brooklyn. When the members of the up-and-coming act took the stage, even they must have been surprised by the response from the Rickshaw crowd.
Immediately, the few hundred fans inside began cheering and singing along to songs like "Young Adult Friction" from The Pains' excellent debut (which hit stores just a few weeks ago). Near the end of their set, The Pains turned out a winning rendition of "Kurt Cobain's Cardigan," a fuzzed out indie pop song named after the late Nirvana frontman.
This is a band that people will be talking about a lot over the next year and, as frontman Kip Berman admitted onstage, this was their first show in California. We were honored to be a part of it.
After the Pains' set, Deerhunter took the stage and, of course, cranked up the amps to eleven. Over the next hour, they played songs from their entire catalog, including 2008's critically beloved Microcastle. "Never Comes" was bashed out during their epic hour-and-a-half set, as was Microcastle's first singles, "Agoraphobia."
Throughout, Cox made off color jokes about his nick names for female genitalia (you had to be there), but in the end, the band's performance felt more like an epic arena show than a tiny all ages performance. At one point, Cox even began talking onstage about one of his musical heroes, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine. That band was known for taking smaller club shows and making them feel like epic arena rock performances.
And, at least on this night, that's exactly what Cox and his bandmates were able to do. So then, thanks to them, as well as The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, the staff at the Rickshaw Stop and the people at Noise Pop for helping make this show happen. You rule.
As for us, we'll see you at the next show!
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