Show Review - Dirty Projectors at Antone's

But sure, skepticism isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and we went into the sold-out show at Antone’s last night appreciative of the band but not as true believers. Their sets at ACL and Red 7 in the recent past had varying reports from concertgoers, so it was anyone’s ballgame. Happily, the opening band, Lafayette’s Givers, were such an enthused and consummate live act that they had the venue’s complete attention. The stellar five-piece had some obvious sonic alchemy with the Projectors - including some vaguely West African influence in their guitar sound - but it was their sense of adventure that really put them on par with the headliners. The band liked to escalate their songs to a fever pitch, but the tracks were intricate. In addition to the contributing vocals of all five members, auxiliary electronic drum sounds, brass, and synthesizer were positioned to bring the most out of these songs, which were happy without being corny, and catchy without losing the edge of surprise. Truly inspiring stuff.

If you’ve seen the Dirty Projectors in any capacity over the last few years, you know they’re no slouches. Their intricate, playful harmonies are among the best in independent rock right now, thanks to Longstreth and his trio of singers: Amber Coffman, Haley Dekle and Angel Deradoorian. Not to ignore their talents as mutli-instrumentalists, but it’s their ricocheting harmonies combined with Longstreth’s odd range that grabs a listener of Bitte Orca and makes their live show so arresting.

Dirty Projectors are not a loud band. Longstreth likes clipped, quick guitar lines, and the bass and drums are powerful but often sparing. Longstreth opened the show solo, with a composition on just electric guitar, and later performed “Two Doves” with just acoustic guitar and the fluttering vocals of Deradoorian. Each of his trio of vocalists had their own strengths, and Amber Coffman, in particular, has an outstanding husky tone and is an excellent guitarist as well. They closed with the mind-boggling “When The World Comes To An End” and were justifiably called back up for an encore.

As is often the case with a band whose obscure beginnings have translated into a larger degree of success, the composition of the crowd at this sold-out show was both fascinating and a bit distracting. The audience consisted less of hard-won snooty types than just regular folks - some of whom, it’s fair to suspect, don’t often see a whole lot of live music quite like this. Bro fistbumps were witnessed before “Stillness is the Move,” and a girl a few feet in front of me put her fingers in her ears and slowly edged backward, almost landing me on the shoes of another girl in some sort of marathon texting competition. A surprising turnout for a band whose New Attitude EP just three years ago was almost so manic as to be enjoyable, but that’s progress, and Dirty Projectors don't look back.