Dirty Projectors / Cargo, London
Dirty Projectors rise clean above Cargo’s messy sound.
Words Alex Marshall
Tonight’s thank yous have to go to the soundman. After the first song by Brooklyn four-piece Dirty Projectors, he has to deal with shouts of, “Turn the girls up!” After the second, “Turn the singer up!” After the third? Well, let’s just say he’s got a whole lot more patience than me.
Dirty Projectors - the band name of David Longstreth and whomever he has in tow at the time - have been getting a mighty lot of press for new album Rise Above. If you’ve read any of the reviews, you’ll have already been filled in about the - god, help us - ‘concept’ behind the record: a “re-imagining” of Damaged by legendary US hardcore band, Black Flag.
The very idea of it would make most people steer well clear, but he does a remarkable job. Out has gone Black Flag’s anger and speed and in have come these beautiful pop songs - all based around little African guitar licks and complex but uplifting harmonies.
What none of the reviews tell you is that Longstreth, a former Yale University student who dropped out of college to start making music seven years ago, has got one horrid voice. He lets it swing from a croon to an out-of-tune wail, adds vibrato to random words, and sometimes even cuts the volume off completely for no apparent reason and no benefit. It isn’t a problem on record, but live it really tries a soundman’s, and audience’s, patience.
The fact he also turns out to be terrifyingly intense, with a 100-yard stare and a mental’s self-cut, unwashed hair doesn’t help matters either. I spent the first 10 minutes just trying to figure out what the two girls - Amber Coffman on guitar and Angel Deradoorian on bass - had done wrong to end up standing beside him.
But it ended up becoming a phenomenal gig and for a simple reason: the many moments when everything fell together were glorious, and when Amber and Angel’s harmonies met David’s wail head on, they found real soul. Humour too, especially when David sang, “Depression is going to kill me,” and the girls responded with a cheerful “Tonight!”
As for the song ‘Rise Above’ itself, they turned the hardcore anthem into a gorgeous spiritual, which couldn’t have been more powerful if a choir had dropped in for the chorus.
To think The Blow headlined this show. Someone really got the running order very wrong tonight.
