Deerhoof, Oct. 25, Starlight Ballroom

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Deerhoof, Oct. 25, Starlight Ballroom

POSTED: Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 4:35 PM

Filed Under: Music Show

All photos by Dianca Potts (click to enlarge)

Art rockers charmed the Starlight Saturday night with a living manifesto of avant musical fusion — spearheaded, of course, by their unpredictable hooks and frontlady Satomi Matsuzaki's nonsensical enunciation. Rhythmically surprising, Deerhoof's opening songs, "Milk Man" and "Snoopy Waves," came off like new-fangled, surprisingly jazzy variations on the indie rock standard. Smiling ear to ear while maintaining killer precision, the Left Coast quartet's gregarious stage presence proved contagious, inspiring fans to half-dance/half-skank around a floor cluttered with umbrellas and raincoats.

There's just something about the way Deerhoof approaches each song — head on and with complete confidence, getting lost inside the orchestration while still paying impeccable attention to each chord and chorus line. They kept on-stage banter to a minimum, pausing to thank the crowd briefly but sincerely between songs. Performing the right percentage of tracks from their lengthy discography, their set saw old favorites like "Dummy Discards a Heart" and "Chatterboxes" as well as newer standards, like the catchy-as-hell "+81" off last year's Friend Opportunity. Closing the evening out with a two-song encore, Matsuzaki donned a tiger mask and crawled across stage while crooning Offend Maggie's "Basket Ball Get Your Groove Back."

All photos by Dianca Potts (click to enlarge)

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