Deerhunter have been capturing the sonic ambience created from a combination of dreamy guitars, tripped-out samples and art-rock noise, then introducing it to the musical extreme of garage rock, since 2001. But after three albums, and a having assembled a legion of fans the world over, the sound of this musical marriage performed live (which has been described by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as a "religious experience") was unheard in Australia.
Coming off an extensive European tour, they were welcomed by a healthy contingent of the local indie-rock brigade at Sydney Uni's Manning Bar, whose attentive ears were met with the sound of 'Cover Me (Slowly)', the opening minute of ethereal noise and building drums from their second album Microcastle, before sliding into to its successor, 'Agoraphobia'.
With the charisma of a lounge singer and the presence of a tortured artist, frontman Bradford Cox lead layers of melodic guitar noodling and pensive rhythm that grew into a downbeat hysteria, executed in contained rage as Joshua Fauver drove from the centre, attacking his bass with punk-rock vigour.
The wall of sound for which Deerhunter have been loved for was somewhat hampered by the notoriously sound-troubled Manning Bar, depriving a full dose of the gut-punching foundation of Fauver's bass and Moses Archuleta's krautrock beats, and reducing what should have been one of Miss O's religious experiences to more like a skim read of the Good Book.
Despite a reduction in kraut, tracks like 'Nothing Ever Happened' and 'Saved by Old Times' delivered highlights of rhythmical kicking and psych-noise in the later stages of a set, which mixed tracks from their albums Weird Era Cont and Microcastle with songs from their new EP, Rainwater Cassette Exchange.
After concluding the set with 'Circulation', Cox returned to the stage alone (with apparently the strongest bladder of the band), before timidly accepting a request for 'Operation'; a quick check of chord progression with guitarist Lockett Pundt and what he warned to be a "bad choice" finished a solid hour and a half of shoegazing havoc.
The quartet from Atlanta, Georgia return to Sydney on June 20 at the Annandale Hotel, and after an introduction to the gospel of Deerhunter, further reading is highly recommended.
Kat Harley
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