Dirty Projectors Calculates its Weirdness

The Dirty Projectors stood above the crowd on the stage at the Music Hall of Williamsburg and commanded much-deserved attention. Williamsburg was happy to have the Brooklyn based Projectors back in town. The crowd—mixed and not at all the total hipster clusterfuck Williamsburg usually is—was filled with other A-list Brooklyn musicians: Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio was there, some members of The National were overheard talking about Beirut, and I spotted one dude from Grizzly Bear and and another from Deerhunter. There was even a cute and short girl in the front, waving her arms around hippie-dance style. It was a feel good show.

It’s a rare occurrence when a band has both angelic stage presence and the musical chops to be considered “good.” The lead singer, Dave Longstreth, stood in the middle of the stage, flanked by, as my friend whispered to me, “the sirens”—Angel Deradoorian on bass and Amber Coffman on guitar.

More than anything else, The Dirty Projectors have control. They begin a song, perhaps with a build, or maybe with a quick burst or explosion, but they always bring a song off the groove at just the right moment. When the crowd is on the brink of the jive, or about to fall into a rhythm, the band pulls back and turns weird.

Weird is, of course, being used as a good/positive adjective here. There are many quirks in the Dirty P’s sound, which makes them appealing. Far from bland, the band’s music is exciting and complicated.

Longstreth’s voice is one that takes some getting used to. It warbles like a distressed bird and cuts through the sound building around him. But in Wednesday’s sold-out performance his voice was offset by the clever use of that sound around him; there were no empty spaces. If Longstreth wasn’t strumming his left-handed Fender, he was swooning into the microphone. If was doing neither, and just stuttering around the stage like a speed-freak, Coffman was picking her guitar.   

Longstreth is very interested in orchestral sounds—evidenced by the recorded material he releases. There was none of that in the performance on Wednesday.  Fierce and directed drumming, along wit Deradoorian and Coffman’s angelic voices, were an appropriate substitute.

When the women sing, the band takes a turn from a romping indie affair to a scene of symphonic blooming. Their melodic and high-pitched vocals turn the sometimes awkward sounding songs into beautiful tapestries, woven together with sweetness.

Longstreth works in concepts. He crafted a whole album around a fictional character named Don Henley, and even re-imagined Black Flag’s “Rise Above.” And the Yale drop-out is obviously methodical. It’s easy to see that every choice he makes, as a guitar player, songwriter or singer, is a calculated one.

Photo by [Jonny-Leather]