You’ve never seen Whelans quite like this. It’s a venue renowned for its patrons lack of limb-flailing, the flock strike a non-chalant pose by default, no matter how transcendental the gig before them is. The mould is broken occasionally when joyous infectiousness warrants it and HOLY FUCK, one of those nights was last night.
You’re Only Massive melted the crowd with hula hoops, crowd-surfing and dance moves and by the time Dan Deacon was due on, there was a brisk atmosphere. Those who were at the Crawdaddy show back in August were converted and waiting for their giddy messiah, friends brought bewildered friends who by the end of the show left with gargantuan grins. Dan Deacon brings the magic of shared experience and dancing like a twat in front of yours and everybody else’s mates.
“Crystal Cat”
The stage offered the best vantage point in the room, despite the many people on the balcony (who looked like they were watching a wall such was the lack of expression. True?). Downstairs was where it was at. I turned into a giggling Japanese uber-fan at a Backstreet Boys concert in the mid-nineties for the duration of the show, dancing and screaming as loud as I could. We danced together, sang from lyric-sheets to “Wham City”, laughed at Dan’s jokes, witnessed a sassy as fuck dance contest and sang about Youtube and Ethan Hawke. I now have Dan Deacon-induced creakneck.
“Silence like the Wind”
How does one man manage to strip so many of their inhibitions simultaneously?
Setting up your equipment in the audience can help. Performing in dim lighting with a trippy green skull and a few table lights might do the trick too. It helps that you can establish a rapport with an Irish audience to the extend that starting the set with House of Pain’s “Jump Around” doesn’t cause you to get your legs broken afterwards. Deacon rips up the live-gig rule book and shoots it out of the speakers in a day-glo technicolor utopia.
The mammoth singalong “Wham City” was a fitting and triumphant ending and hands down beats any crowd singalong I’ve witnessed. Absolutely incredible experience. The guy in the sweaty t-shirt and arms upstretched below says it all.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
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Nialler, this is a spot on summation of the night. If you don’t mind I’m gonna update my blog with a link to your youtube video.
Can’t wait to see him play in January, I’ve prepared my mates with a few youtube videos for what they should expect. Its good to see he got his glowing green skull back!
Saw him with Girl Talk over here, pretty shattering gig alright. The dance contest mid way is a stroke of crowd control genius, both a laugh and forcing people to spread out and stop crowding him out, leaving room to dance beyond the circle too of course. Only thing was when I saw him he a had a glowing green pig on a stick, maybe that was during the period his glowing skull got burgularsied after a show. Anyway, nice review.
Great review dude. Sweet vids too. He was simply awesome in Róisíns on Friday night… Made ribbons of the chin stroking brigade. Which was nice.
[quote post=”914″]Nialler, this is a spot on summation of the night. If you don’t mind I’m gonna update my blog with a link to your youtube video.[/quote]
of course dude. nice to meet ya.
fuckin life changing gig dude
I know I have misssed a lot of stuff, and good stuff, I am sure.
I’ll try to catch up tomorrow. There is too much good music I have misssed. The first video was great-sounding!
Great review Nialler, twas my first time seeing him and the whole thing blew me away. The guy just epitomises infectious enthusiasm! What a night
DAMN YOU ALL! (again)
Im in the first picture – smiling bearded glasses guy about 4 rows back – that smile was stuck to my face all nite – and I was stone cold sober – wonderful nite, great vibe, great fun – despite the place smelling like a gyms sock by the end – cant wait for the next one!
Missing Dan Deacon’s Crawdaddy gig was my biggest gig-regret of the year – but Sunday was a highlight…unreal! I missed ‘You’re only Massive’ but obviously something clicked because I walked into the best atmosphere I’ve felt in Whelans in an age. The fact that so many heads stuck around after on a Sunday night to basically mess about long after the gig ended sums up for me what Dan Deacon does…when he plays we get to play, fun and games a plenty…still beaming 😀
great night, seriously sweaty after, which is always a good sign!
Had a go of the oul dance off too. Great craic…
wow, sock knocking off gig that was.
did a little review here with some video..
http://www.itison.net/blog/archives/81
Its late at night and im still awake and still thinking about this monumentous gig which is why I have to write about and tell the world ! Dan Deacons my fucking hero right now and it may have something to do with the fact that i was having what could only be described as an epileptic seizure on the stage directly in front of him throughout the whole night(I was the one with the snowman ,sweating a lot!) It was the most perfect spot in the venue to soak up the atmosphere of a fucking excellent performance overlooking a fucking excellent crowd ( us irish do ourselves proud when it comes to going fucking mental at any given oppertunity)the only person to be closer was the aforementioned snowman who actually straddled Dan Deacons neck at one point (if anyone has a pic of that please send it to me ) lucky git! I better finish up now if u want to see some of my pics they are on my myspace myspace.com/Johnny_Darco
and my videos are on youtube ull find them if u copy and paste the link below (they are a bit better than yours nialler9 but thats my opinion!)
http://www.youtube.com/user/ycradj81
phew!
I went to see Dan Deacon in Sligo. There was only forty people there so we had to really get involved. Had a great chat with Dan (nice guy) and of course had a great night.
That was an awesome gig (although Sligo sounds pretty cool^). I knew I had to go to this has soon as I saw the video for ‘Crystal Cat’. What a song. Although, I guess I was also one of the bewildered friends brought along by reports of the previous show… in any case I thoroughly enjoyed it!
I did my own review on my blog if anyone wants to check it out: http://hardcorefornerds.blogspot.com/2007/12/dan-deacon-live-whelans-dublin.html
Darcy – you were some space cadet 🙂
D’arcy you were some twat, you annoying pillhead fool, ruining it for me on stage, cunt.
Jamrag u fucking retard i didnt take any drugs who fucking needs them at a gig like this! dont be such a fucking pussy and get over it it wasnt a daniel o donnell concert , fag!
Don’t sit on the fence lads. Tell us what you really felt about the gig!
Darcy you gurning utter fucking attention seeking fool, placing yourself centre stage at myself and my friends expense (all female and approx 5’5″). Hope you enjoyed making a total tit of yourself for the duration of the gig. Learn to type. Goodbye
Feckin feckin feckin darcy, I use the F word alot, that makes me hardcore. Everyone cheer for the snowman, its hilarious isnt it? No it wasn’t. 2 more shakes of that snowmans head and it would of been sticking out your ass.
Gets my vote for twat of the year.
slams it’s way into my top 5 gigs ever. amazing show and stmosphere.
Yeah, that was probably even better than the first gig in that he played Wham City – perfect – but I should have taken his lead and strapped my glasses to my head! He’s on to something there! Such a lovely guy as well.
Man of the year = Dan Deacon.
Yeah, that was probably even better than the first gig in that he played Wham City – perfect – but I should have taken his lead and strapped my glasses to my head! He’s on to something there! Such a lovely guy as well.
Gig of the year.
Man of the year = Dan Deacon.
Saw Dan Deacon last night in Liverpool. Even though there was only about 30/40 people there, Dan’s involving stage show ensured a truly enjoyable experience.
i had such a ball at this. took some photos of the crowd on a crappy disposable camera too. dan deacon is a legend!
maebh
Saw him back in August at Crawdaddy. Awesome gig. Twas the gig of the year for me back then. Missed him this time around at Whelan’s. Is he back in January? Can’t wait.
He’s not back in January, I’m living in North Carolina for a few months and he’s playing here on the 6th of Jan. Can’t wait! I hope the American crowd get involved, sometimes there just a bit too polite, but I’m sure Dan can get them going.