The indifference of Western formality was made poignantly clear when Dirty Projectors took the stage at The Walker Art Center. There we were, sitting in our particularly comfortable seats (The Walker's McGuire Theater isn't even four years old), while one of the most rhythmically complex guitar-based bands traveled at the speed of light in comparison to our rigid immobility. Dave Longstreth, Dirty Projectors' "musical director," jerked about the stage, hardly concerned with the technicalities of his labyrinth guitar lines. It was eye-opening just witnessing Longstreth scaling all over the neck of his left-handed guitar, stroking the strings just above the pickups with nary a pick (besides for a few rock-out moments).
A bulk of the set was comprised of new songs, mostly from Bitte Orca, their forthcoming album on Domino. Much is made of the group's stylistic appropriations, and these new songs projected this two-fold. Like the songs on Rise Above, they were melodically acrobatic, intricately composed, sharply accented, and structurally daring -- and if this performance was an indication of things to come, Dirty Projectors' increasing complexity is being matched by their increasing accessibility. They claimed to have little experience performing these songs, but it was certainly hard to tell.
Aside from Longstreth's expressive warbling and explorative guitar technique, the night was made successful by a wonderful rotating cast of bandmates. The foundation was held down by Brian McComber on drums and Nat Baldwin on bass, while Amber Coffman (vocals/guitar), Angel Deradoorian (vocals, guitars, keyboard, samples), and Haley Dekle (vocals) decorated the songs with additional rhythmic and harmonic ornamentation. I found their vocals at their best when creating textures ("Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie") rather than repeating lyrics or assuming lead vocals (Amber took a couple songs, and Angel did another), but it was nonetheless a welcome variation to DP's otherwise hierarchy of voices.
The rest of the set drew mainly from Rise Above, including fantastic versions of "Six Pack" and "Thirsty and Miserable," plus a stunning encore of "Spray Paint (The Walls)" performed without mics and in the crowd. Although I can't stand the ego and theater involved with encores, the naked performance of "Spray Paint" was refreshing, especially since the sound for the full-band portion was terribly mixed. It's as if the sound dude was trying to spotlight Longstreth like he was Neil Young, turning up his vocals and guitar and completely de-emphasizing the other members' contributions; the lopsided mixing essentially obliterated the dynamics of the rhythmic juxtapositions on songs like "Knotty Pine." Nonetheless, Dirty Projectors put on a thoroughly engaging, impressive performance -- and anything that gets me closer to Walker's Fluxus collection is a plus in my book.
