I had always heard the name Deer Tick, but never actually heard them before. I think subconsciously I assumed they would sound like either Deerhunter or Deerhoof... a completely stupid assumption, but you can only read so many bands with "Deer" in their name before deciding that one of them must sound like the other. Anyway, I'm a huge (kind of obsessive) fan of both Deerhunter and Deerhoof so please don't lambast me for never hearing them before. I feel as though I have two out of the three current big "Deer" bands under my belt. And when I was emailed by BrooklynVegan late on Wednesday to see if I was up for shooting anything, I said yes and made my way over to the Music Hall of Williamsburg with Jennifer.The first opener, Jason Anderson, was just god awful. Someone needs to tell this guy that he's not Bruce Springsteen, and furthermore, he's the first on a bill of three bands. Dude was singing like he was closing out the Superbowl Halftime Show. I admire his dedication and singing voice, but seriously, I was embarrassed just to be watching him. Thank god that only lasted for thirty minutes. The second band, J Roddy Walston & the Business were an improvement, but still kind of that cheesy holier-than-thou attitude, plus the whole, "we're a rock and roll band, now dance!" sort of vibe. Yech. Though I hadn't heard Deer Tick yet, if there openers were any indication, it wasn't going to be good.
And apparently Deer Tick has their fair share of (drunken) female fans. I was practically surrounded by screaming, beer spilling, and well, kind of intimidating girls. While Deer Tick was setting up on stage, some girl grabbed me by the shoulder and said, "If you don't dance to Deer Tick, you can fucking leave! Wooooo!!!!" Wow. Okay so then as singer/guitarist John McCauly is tuning his guitar the same girl yells out, "We saw you on a boat! I've seen your penis!". Holy shit. The guy clearly is doing his best to ignore her. Then the girl next to me is posing for a shot with her boyfriend and she spills her beer all over me and this guy standing next to me. Psycho.
Anyway, Deer Tick is basically a country band, but has strong ties to the indie scene. That said, I've never been the biggest country fan, though I don't adamantly write it off like most people do, and I do like the Jayhawks, Wilco, umm... the Travelling Wilburys, and I guess that's it. Their songs often took advantage of the strong vocal abilities of the four members up front, and the drummer came out from behind the kit to sing one song as well. That guy from Titus Andronicus came out to play the Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" which was really energetic and faithful to the original, but I got the feeling that no one in that crowd knew that song. Sad. Some guy came out with his girlfriend and asked her to marry him. She said yes. Good for them!
Deer Tick sounded great and they're obviously a talented bunch with a strong following, but the show just went on way longer than it should have. For being a sold out show, I took notice of the place being half empty by the end of the show. The end of the show being 1am. Man, thank god I had off work the next day. I'd recommend listening to Deer Tick, but maybe it's best to leave it at that rather than have to see one of their shows.
Full gallery of photos are up heeeyah.
