Mountain Man/Deer Tick [10.08.10]
I’ve been known to do this. I will go to a show and the next day, somehow unexplainably, forget that I went. It’s a symptom of my wildly short attention span.
But this show held my attention for the better part of that evening last week. I had the pleasure of going to the / show thanks to the sweet and courteous Mike, Deer Tick’s TM.
I’d always wanted to see Mountain Man because I’ve been a huge fan since sometime last year. There is nothing more wonderful than a three piece, female accapella group. And it’d nearly been a full year since I’d seen Deer Tick play the same venue.
I was interested to see how this show would go in comparison, simply because last year was a delightful shit show with the rowdiest crowd in attendance, and whiskey being passed around on stage. They were on tour with Dawes at the time, and what a phenomenal lineup. It was just a really good time. But since their release of a more sombre record, filled with slower jams about heartache, loss and faith- I wanted to know if it’d still feel like the same party, or if we’d all just get really bummed out.
So we missed the first act and came right in time for Mountain Man who could barely be heard all the way at the back, against the tide of the noisy crowd. Mountain Man shows need to be dead silent, you must listen in for the nuances, for the soft harmonies and the words. But it wasn’t the place for such an ethereal show. I still thoroughly enjoyed them. They played some of my favorites off their new record Made the Harbour. Soonafter I ran downstairs to grab their show poster, something I’ve been collecting for the passed 2 years. I also managed to grab a David Bazan poster and tried to explain to my friend Pat that there was a man in all his bearded glory. A real man. Bazan is just one of those phantom crushes I have, not “really” real, but actually slightly real.
Next up was Deer Tick, they seemed a bit more composed this time. Sharper, and the songs- more matured. The crowd was a little less crazy but they all fervently squished to the front to get a closer glimpse of the man, the myth that is John McCauley. He played songs a little slower, enough to conjure a crowd sing along where jocks and art kids fist pumped to the sky
about whiskey and girls and things they only wish they could relate to. I love Deer Tick, more for what they are than the songs they sing. They’re just real dudes, who are unapologetically into getting wasted, in it for the brotherhood, hold a healthy sense of youth while age crawls into their smokey voices and they accept it.
And they’ve got a decent grasp on faith, or at least are willing to work it out and wrestle with it. They’re men, in all their imperfection, and that’s what makes them so appealing.
Mountain Man- Honeybee
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Mountain Man- Buffalo
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Deer Tick- Easy
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I went to the Mountain Man/Deer Tick show last week, but then I forgot about it. But then I remembered:
I went to the Mountain Man/Deer Tick show last week, but then I forgot about it. But then I remembered:
rt @fwba I went to the Mountain Man/Deer Tick show last week, but then I forgot about it. But then I remembered: