Them's a Dirty!

I expected to be asked “How were the Dirty Projectors?” I didn’t expect my answer. They were….complicated. Innovative, no question. Talented, definitely. Pleasurable…the jury’s still out.

Mostly, the music felt a bit like the tunes that followed me round and round the carousel as a child. Moving up and down in circles. First the little ones, the one my zebra made as he galloped behind the ostrich in front of us. Then the larger one, the one that took me past my dad at a dizzying speed. By the end, the sound was circling in my head, even after all the other circling had stopped. So are the Dirty Projectors.

Sporadically, they rocked out. They stopped concentrating on testing perfect pitch and manhandled their instruments mercilessly. These moments of sound and fury are when they really shone, but I’m not sure that’s an endorsement. For Radiohead, yes. For Wilco, no. For the Dirty Projectors….maybe.

The drummer, his faux-hawk-a-flailing, really deserves the most credit for the magnetism on these metal-moments. He cares not about perfect pitch. With a second base-drum, muffled, acting as a floor tom, a classic Zildjian ride cymbal with the price sticker still on, and a battery of mallets, he clearly enjoys those moments best. He was the only one who seemed to. Dave Longstreth and “the girls” seemed far too serious in contrast. Perhaps, they needed all of their energies to manufacture their kaleidoscope of octaves and pitch. But, like Mariah Carey, just because you have mastery of these doesn’t mean you should flaunt it constantly. Sometimes, simplicity says more.

I might be alone in thinking this, however. The crowd was into it. Their spastic rhythms found true love in that of the Dirty Projectors. And Mr. Longstreth certainly has a keen sense of his audience. This is a one man show. The drummer and his “girls” are on stage only as accessories that showcase his genius, though they offer their own impressive talents. I am left wondering what would emerge if he left them to their own devices. The Dirty Projectors without their light bulb. Now that’s something I’m interested in seeing.