\\\Open Viewing///

New York University, April 2nd, 2009


This performance was held at E&L Auditorium, in the NYU Kimmel Center. It was produced by myself and NYU Program Board. It was the New York City kick off of the tour supporting his new album Bromst. He performed with 14 players and arrived to the venue in a school bus, (a.k.a. "cool bus"). It took them 6 hours to set up and rehearse for the performance. They had never played together before:

I think that looking at a performance example of this piece would be a great addition to the analysis of "Snookered" and will incorporate a visual account of how Dan Deacon conducts his ensemble of 14 players and 400 excited fans. This video encompasses the sense of community and interactivity Deacon's music brings to every concert hall:

DAN DEACON & ENSEMBLE: 14 Players on the stage and Dan Deacon performs on the floor with the audience. He never performs on the stage.

AUDIENCE: Dimly lit, hands in the air, turning around eyes closed, claps, trusting not to bump into everybody else, synthesizer starts: everyone is on the main screen! Everyone is swaying side to side (nice and easy) some hands sill up in the air, the refelction of them up on the screen. The camera scans the room looking for eye catching dancers and the lights, orange and pink hues... Deacon prefers the room dark with zero lighting. Deacon starts singing, desparatey and a bit off key, you can see the ensemble now just a bit and the pace is picking up.

PEAK OF THE SONG: People start dancing faster and the video seems a bit delayed so that’s taking away from the real time movement… chip munk theme is a bit helter-skeltered... Focused now on a guy frantically dancing… pitch black and can’t see anything now.

ENSEMBLE: Finally we get a view of the 14 person ensemble dressed in white mechanic's uniforms, the audience completely black and we can see only the screen and dan singing. Looks like he's frustrated and preoccupied with the ensemble. We can see now the two drummers working together, even though everything sounds electronic. This sounds quite different than the recording, a bit off pitch, and delayed. It’s probably because today was the first day they’ve ever rehearsed together as this version of the ensemble. It’s pretty great that there’s a delay on the visuals cause it looks like they are dancing harder. It’s great that the camera is focused on the screen during the lyrics cause we can get a more personal view of dan deacon singing…really ties into the text, as it is desperate and disappointed: Watching a film of the show, the audience is watching a video of the show.

Dan Deacon is below a pile of sweaty dancing fans. The film ends with a black out in the audience and one light shining over Deacon’s synths and doo-dads.