MUSIC REVIEW: DARWIN DEEZ - LIVE AT THE ECHO

A Super Live Set of Alt-Indie-Pop-Dance Magic with Weirdness, Fun and Cabbages

By: Seth Shellhouse

July 9, 2011

(July 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, California) Last Thursday, I caught Darwin Deez playing at The Echo.  For those of you who aren't in Los Angeles (which those of us who ARE in Los Angeles tend to forget includes most people), The Echo is an exceptionally small, dark, low-production, and absolutely legendary local venue.  I was surprised to find out that Darwin Deez would be playing such a small room, given that the man/band has become so popular in the past year.  Once I arrived, though, everything made sense.  The Echo was was the perfect venue for this show.  The small house was filled to capacity with what was a very dedicated, very friendly, and I might even say insular crowd.  I guess, here in LA, Deez hasn't really hit yet, but the people who know really know.  The Echo fans were serious, and they were excited.  There was a lot of dancing and singing along from the mostly high school/college aged, and (I'd guess) suburban crowd.  I met a lot of cool kids.  And that rarely happens in the LA indie scene, where the order of the day tends to be standing still, crossing arms, and throwing "as if" glances.  To put it simply, the crowd got an A, in my book.  It was nice to see.

As for the performer, well, I'd give him/them an A as well.  And before I continue, I should clear this up.  I wrote "him/them" and previously "man/band" because there is a bit of Alice Cooper style confusion surrounding Darwin Deez.  Darwin Deez is both a) a band name and b) the name of said band's frontman/songwriter, and c) also the emcee name that Darwin Deez (the frontman) uses when he releases rap music.  Yes, he raps.  And I think he makes all his own beats.  Did you not read my Buzzine review of the free-to-download Darwin Deez mixtape?  Why not?  It's super fun.  Onward to the live music review I'm supposed to be writing. 

If you're not familiar with Darwin Deez, I'll try my best to explain.  Elements of Darwin's sound, his visual aesthetic, and his penchant for raiding the props department in his videos have always prompted me to describe him as sort of a male version of Sia.  He plays a very simple, ultra cute, sort of nerdy brand of indie dancepop, but, production aside, sounds very folky.  Darwin has a very pretty, unassuming voice that matches his thoroughly non-threatening, Napoleon Dynamite look.  Listen closely, and Darwin's vocal tone and melodies might remind you of no one more than Colin Meloy.

So Darwin looks unassuming.  The man's stage presence, however, is more in line with his persona on his rap record.  On stage, Darwin is ultra confident, hyper energetic, flippant, but not ironic or snarky as one might expect, given his love for cheesy pop (more on that later).  I'd even call Darwin cocky.  He displays a level of crowd control and swagger (and I use that term in the correct sense...please...please, people, stop saying "swag" -- you're ruining a perfectly well-defined word) that is unexpected.  Darwin owns his fans and he knows it.

Since Darwin Deez is a relatively new band with an extremely thin catalog, they needed to fill out their set a bit.  And without any visuals or additional musicians or prepared covers, they got creative.  The Darwin Deez set on Thursday included easily as much choreographed dance as it did live music.  Between numbers, the band dropped their gear, cranked up the house sound, pumped hip hop, mash-ups -- even, at one point, Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" over the PA -- and busted out some fun, hilarious synchronized dancing.  Darwin Deez made do.  They turned a short set into a fun romp.  They turned a lack of production into some interesting opportunities to get weird.  At one point, the entire band played only tambourines while Darwin rapped one of the joints from his mixtape over a backing track.  And, to add a little more weird to the soup, Darwin offered heads of cabbage to his fans (the ladies), reminding them, once cabbage started flying around the room, to be "frugal with the cabbage."  Darwin Deez is frugal indeed.  But you know who else was frugal?  The Frugal Gourmet.  And he made some ill casseroles.

Of course, the meat of the show, as opposed to the cabbage (sorry, I had to), was the band's faithful, frenetic rendition of the album numbers.  The arrangement for the live numbers was straight-up four-piece and, aside from dropping some of the textural guitar parts and percussive elements (most notably the handclaps) that you'll hear on the album, the numbers sounded very much like the recorded tracks.  This fidelity both further pleased the crowd and proved that Darwin Deez is the real deal.  The band's playing was as tight as the band's aforementioned choreography.  Vocally, Darwin was pretty solid, and the sound was perfect for a small room packed with bodies.  The Darwin Deez songs are, as mentioned, very short and very simple.  And as much as hearing them played straightforward pleases the crowd, I  would be interested to hear some of the songs jammed out a bit, or to hear how the band handles a full cover.  This isn't something that I feel was necessarily missing from the set, but I am always curious to hear how a singer/songwriter with his own signature style handles covers and extended material.  Also, it never hurts, when your band's name is the same as your name, to give your sidemen a little time to show off.  We all like to show off.  On the other hand, though, this aversion to long diverse sets and love for dance may be a very conscious decision on the part of Darwin Deez.  Where most bands would bust out some "Freebird" or "Louie Louie," Deez whipped his hair and had his band mimic The Pips.  They did, at one point, play the chorus from Paul Simon's "Call Me Al," and they did stop the music mid-set to allow Darwin to take the role of hypeman and deliver a verbatum DJ Kool Interlude, but for the most part, it was a little of Deez, a little of dat, and a lot of random, frivolous fun.

Standout Tracks: "Constellations," "DNA," "Radar Detector"

For Fans Of: Adam Green, Only Son, Kimya Dawson