I have been staring at my screen for about half an hour, not really sure what to say about Saturday nights’ event at Bi Nuu. How does one review a band that pushes musical boundaries? That has fun on stage, that is very musically and technically skilled and experienced, that is also so psychotic and silly yet serious and clever? Music so strange that one cannot really hate on it? I don’t know…
Deerhoof has been in my music collection for over ten years and it was a rather exciting moment to see them in flesh and bone, see that voice come out of a body and the crazy music out of their fingers.
From heavy punk to beautiful almost childlike ballads
If someone would not know who this band is and what they sound like, they might be utterly confused as to what the hell is going on. Deerhoof are known to play ‘avant garde’ experimental and almost psychotic pop punk, playing a lot with tempo changes and going from heavy punk to beautiful almost childlike ballads. They consist of four members, with three of them having played together for over a decade.
Channeling aliens while playing
It was actually quite phenomenal to watch them go through these crazy tempo changes with such ease, the only thing signifying that they were actually working their brains hard was their strange mouth movements – the two guitarists look almost like they are channeling aliens while playing. Or maybe they are aliens? Could very well be.
The coolest clockwork dancing
Drummer Greg Saunier confidently loses his shit behind the drums and front lady Satomi Matsuzaki, when not on bass, does the coolest clockwork dancing. She even got the crowd to clockwork dance along to a song and for the encore she made the crowd sing (though I think she expected too much from us). Did I mention that the crowd loved them? So much love. That was really great to see.
The support act, Cowtown, was very cool! Lots of energy and always great to see a girl on synth. The music was also really good and a lot of variety in their songs. You could also see that they were incredibly honoured and excited to open for Deerhoof and I think it was a good match. This three piece is from Leeds and I would definitely recommend you see them while they are still here in Berlin.
And of course, go open your mind and check out some Deerhoof songs on youtube if you have never heard of them.
Lastly, Bi Nuu is a fantastic venue for live music with great quality sound. It has an astoundingly sized disco ball that would probably make Miley Cyrus weak at the knees.
