August 3, 2008, McCarren Park, King Kahn, Deerhunter and Black Lips

I arrived too late to see the Tall Firs. I’ve never heard them, so I really don’t know if I missed anything. I was only interested in seeing King Kahn and The Black Lips. Unfortunately Deerhunter was sandwiched between the two acts. The other time I had seen Deerhunter I remembered it as a perfectly pleasant experience. However, since then, I’ve found their album utterly boring and their lead singer extremely obnoxious and pretentious in interviews. He seems to suffer from the gay and never had sex-chip-on-the-shoulder complex. Being horribly ugly (sorry dude) because of a medical condition, has also left him somewhat bitter about his lack of sex life. At least that’s how he seemed to me.

But I had heard good things about King Kahn, and my memory of The Black Lips at Siren last year was mostly positive despite being so far away that their music became some weird psychedelic rock experiment. So I was somewhat excited at the prospect of being able to fully experience both bands live for free.

Well almost fully. We arrived what seemed like a few songs into King Kahn’s set. This judgment was made based on how much time he spent on stage. Based on the energy he showed, I felt like we had arrived towards the end of the set. Despite about 20 seconds where he did a pretty cool dance that involved falling back on his hands and kicking his feet out, he didn’t really move around that much.

What he did was yell at people and throw stuff. And by stuff, I mean rotten bananas. It was kind of gross, and it didn’t endear him to my girlfriend who isn’t much of a fan of litter. She also had a problem with him yelling “motherfucker” at people in between songs since we were at a park and parents with their children were nearby. I don’t share her opinion, but his behavior did speak to a larger problem: he seemed to think he was a star in the league of James Brown and Mick Jagger, but musically, he was no James Brown or Rolling Stones. Even his stage presence was weak. He simply didn’t have any energy except when he was yelling at people and throwing things.

I was pretty much ready to go home by the time they were done. I didn’t think I could take being irritated by another band while waiting for the Black Lips. Fortunately though, Deerhunter gave a subdued but strong performance. Bradford Cox wasn’t even in drag. Instead, he introduced the band’s new (female) cheerleader-uniform clad guitarist, saying “she wears the dress now” or something like that. Other than that, Deerhunter were the dose of normalcy and calm that I desperately needed at this point.

The band played a disciplined set that featured very few breaks for audience banter. I don’t think they were anything remarkable, but something about their relaxed and positive energy that was the perfect antidote to King Kahn. The drummer looked calm and determined (and very young) throughout the set, the bassist and male guitarist seemed to have small quiet smiles on their faces the whole time, and the new guitarist was extraordinarily mellow for a cheerleader –the only exception being at the end of their set when she did cartwheels and flashed her bandmates (she was wearing shorts underneath).

Bradford Cox is still a surprising frontman. The last time I had seen Deerhunter, he layered his vocals in effects and did not play guitar. This time, the vocals were clean, and he appeared to be shouldering lead guitar duties. The transition served him well. For someone as awkward looking as him, he is wonderfully relaxed and confident on stage. At one point, he For the finale, he took his vocal microphone and placed it next to his guitar amp, unleashing a blanket of noise that almost smothered the rest of the instruments. But the band kept playing, taking their time before giving up the stage. Sure it was excessively loud, but I found the finale relaxing and pleasant.

These feelings were gone almost as soon as The Black Lips started to play. I had no complaints about the band. Just the fans. Maybe I’m getting old, but all the pushing and jumping around just got on my nerves. Which was a shame, because they would have been a fun band to dance to. For the first time I found myself moving progressively further backwards of my own free will while listening to a band I liked. Once we reached the shade, the show was a lot more enjoyable. We also had more room and were spared the craziness.

I’ll be seeing one last show (maybe) at McCarren Park before they shut it down for good. They’re going to remodel the park and actually fill the pool with water in the summer. I guess a lot of people aren’t happy about that, but after standing there all day in the hot sun (there’s no shade until 6pm when the sun starts to set. And to reach it, you have to move towards the rear), I wanted nothing more than to be immersed in water. I had to settle for a shower.