Deerhunter, the psychedelic rock band from Atlanta GA, comprised on Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt, Moses Archuleta, and Josh McKay released their brand new album Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared at the Lodge Room in Highland Park, Los Angeles in the wee hours of this morning. Fans were able to purchase the new record fresh off the press right after the show – at midnight to be exact.
The band kicked off their 2019 tour in support of their new material state-side late last night before heading to Japan on a 7:00 AM flight this morning. “If you have to get up early in the morning tomorrow, we feel you,” claimed Cox. The band started the first half of their set with several of their new songs, including “Death in Midsummer,” “No One’s Sleeping,” “Element” and “What Happens to People” before switching over to some of their older, well-loved material off their hit album Halcyon Digest.
After getting the crowd thoroughly warmed up, Cox wanted to have some fun with the band’s live debut of “Plains.” Announcing that it wasn’t very polished yet and still needed some practice, Cox first performed the new song without his guitar. He quickly followed it up with a “live audience focus group,” as he called it, asking his fans if they missed his guitar during the song and suggesting to improve the live act through more dancing perhaps. Polling the audience, if they preferred to see him dance more or play his guitar instead, Cox opted for his guitar and replayed the song “Plains” for a second, improved live debut. Jokingly, Cox claimed that he wanted audience members to be able to capture the perfect video compilation of the song.
To lighten the mood after those two practice runs, Deerhunter performed their hit song “Desire Lines.” “This one will make you feel good,” chuckled Cox. His jokes did not end there. Next he called out an audience member in the very front, a 10-year old kid named Jack. Offering to take a song request from “the coolest kid ever,” yet apparently already having played the child’s favorite song, Cox volunteered “Snakeskin.” “I think that’s a really cool suggestion.”
During the encore performance, Cox ran into some pedal problems. After several restarting attempts, yet repeated pedal failure, Cox assured the audience that he would “not have a panic attack. They make these things in Japan.” And so Deerhunter ended the night with a perfectly improvised pedal-free version of “He Would Have Laughed” before setting off to Japan at 7:00 AM this morning, where a brand new pedal was hopefully eagerly awaiting them.
