The Post-Rockist

Ever been out somewhere, at some place or something, watching stuff going on, and people doing stuff, and people playing instruments and stuff, and doing weird stuff and fun stuff and unusual stuff, and realize to yourself, “Wow, I’ll probably never see something like this ever again.”?

Well, I had this feeling about 20 minutes into the first night of the Baltimore Round Robin at the Mocad last night. And if you weren’t there, I’m guessing that you didn’t have this feeling at all last night, huh?.

The show kicked off with a group hug. With all of the equipment set up on the perimeter of the large room and the audience in the middle, Dan Deacon asked all of the performers to surround the crowd and join hands. Dan then asked us all to sing a very low note and gradually raise it till we hit falsetto and then back down, and we all did that, for almost 2 minutes, some people feeling pretty uncomfortable at first, but all of the performers were doing it too and they had us surrounded, so I’m guessing nobody felt too stupid belting it out. Not a bad way to start.

I suppose the Round Robin could have been subtitled “Dan Deacon’s Friendly Freak-in Variety Show” because that’s pretty much what it was: a freaky variety show. You had Lexie Mountain Boys opening the event, a group of four women singing a cappella like you’ve never heard before, who were at first a bit off-putting, to be honest, but got more and more interesting and accessible throughout the night (or perhaps my weirdness tolerance grew) to the point where I’d go see an entire show of theirs if they ever came back to town. Blue Leader dressed like a poorly-wrought 1960s DC comics hero and recited his poetry about computer code (”It’s all code”) and how “those goddamned aliens are going to pay” over buzzing electronic music. Santa Dads was a three-piece band featuring ukulele (fashioned like a Fender Telecaster, and therefore, a “telukulele” or “ukelecaster”), a beat-boxing tiger-suited guy, and a girl thrashing about with a leopard-print stuffed-animal octopus covering her head. Creepers was one of my faves, playing very awkward, ingeniously juvenile songs, one love song including the amazing lyric “They enjoyed the taste of each other’s teeth.” Ed Schraeder is a kind-of comic guy, according to a few write-ups I read, and if “a comic” means “he’s entertaining,” then yes, he is a comic. A nice surprise was Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez, whose beautifully sung warbles and agile guitar playing remind me a lot of early Devendra Banhart. Not to forget, of course, the amazing, amazing Beach House. I can’t believe how good they sounded and the only disappointment of the night was that they didn’t play “Gila” (or 12 more songs). There were other great acts too. Too many to mention. And with one more night to go.

In addition, there were some funny one-off acts, including a “shampoo-ing competition” (you had to be there), and bizarre (and hilarious) faux-Muppets short movie, and one “Funny Clown” whose first words to the audience, I believe, were “Death, death, death.”

In conclusion, this was one of the coolest things that’s happened all year long, and I can’t believe there’s going to be another night of it tomorrow.

<sup>Lexi Mountain Boys

Teeth Mountain

Jana Hunter

Nautical Almanac

Ed Schraeder

Blue Leader

Creepers


Santa Dads



Beach House

Lexi Mountain Boys

Comedy!</sup>

More Eyes Night blogins:

Webvomit
Five-Three Dialtone

PS. To those who were there: Toilet Paper, Pussy Time, Oreos, and Milk