LIVE REVIEW: Deerhunter and Real Estate @ Slim’s 10/30

On the second night of consecutive sell outs in SF, Bradford Cox and his mates were at their weirdest and best as they went through their impressive catalog.

I was really stoked for this show, as I had yet to see opening band Real Estate live and their last album is one of my favorites of the past year.

These guys from Jersey moved through their material with all the ease and care of their album. Vocals were barely audible, but the instruments swirled and blended creating a very cool wall of sound. “Fake Blues” might have been the best song of the whole show.

Deerhunter started the set with “Cover me (slowly)” and “Agorophobia” which is the opening sequence to the epic Microcastle. Where most bands will feature songs on their latest album to sell records to those in attendance that don’t have it, Deerhunter could care less. They play what they want, when they want– and they play as long as they want. The set lasted nearly two hours, but they only played 10 songs. It’s a very free flowing set, or at least it feels that way. “Don’t Cry” was dedicated to Real Estate, and they stopped mid song, started arguing about who messed up and started twice again until the song felt nothing like itself. “Two Weeks” was completely redone. Missing was the hazy water feel that was replaced by a clean beat. The band started taking requests and played an awesome version of “Cryptograms.” But the best songs of the set were the most epic. Both “He Would Have Laughed,” and “Nothing Ever Happened” were mind bending, meandering, and hard rocking. As always with the band, you don’t know what you’re going to hear, but it will be awesome, and it will be interesting.

photo by christian west