This is the time of year when Coloradans can feel summer and all its outdoor, sun-kissed fun on the horizon. But itap a bittersweet sixth sense for grown-ups who have long since said goodbye to such follies as slumber parties and sprinkler fights.
A show — with its mind-numbing lights and graphics and interactive audience-participation games — may be the perfect tonic.
Part concert, part performance art and all spectacle, overgrown kids pining for the carefree, uninhibited frolicking of their misspent youth, sold out Denver’s on Tuesday for the type of multisensory circus that Deacon fans have come to expect.
He’s the electronic composer who helped shape in Baltimore thatap become the envy of creatives nationwide. Deacon is touring now behind his latest studio album, “Gliss Riffer,” a release characterized by layered sounds and samples and Deacon’s mad scientist approach to mixing.
Following opening acts Prince Rama and Ben O’Brien, it was just after 10 p.m. when Deacon commanded a stage adorned with a funky-batik-quilt curtain and oversized suitcase stand topped with MPCs and mixers. He was immediately chatty and quirky, directing the crowd through a movement exercise intended to release anxiety.
That was the first in a series of group-dance activities that Deacon used to transform his show into an interactive, participatory art experiment. As he unfurled tracks from the new album along with a few back-catalogue selections, Deacon led this audience through a party set an aurally chaotic soundtrack. “Feel the Lightning,” “Mind on Fire” and “Build Voice” were especially well-received.
“I’m really enjoying the casual atmosphere of the show,” Deacon said midway through his set. “Good job everybody!”
With his genre-bending songs built around baselines that go from melodic to pulsating on a dime, and electronically-manipulated lyricism that is as much about capturing a feeling or an experience as it is about telling a story, Deacon is not every pop music fan’s cup-of-tea. But for people who appreciate artists who push creative boundaries and manage to consistently put out original work, there may be nothing better than Dan Deacon’s artistically sophisticated live show.
