Live Review: Deerhunter

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Live Review: Deerhunter, Friday, October 1, 2010, Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, Ga.
by: Manu Muraro

Deerhunter did it again.

The indie-rock band from Atlanta kicked off their Fall 2010 tour in their hometown with a show at the Variety Playhouse on Friday, October 1, 2010. The show, which was a release party for their new record Halcyon Digest that came out on September 28, 2010, was short but very, very sweet.

After bringing three other bands as openers, Deerhunter’s set was only a little more than an hour long – but it was so great I had to take off my earplugs.

The band played about half of the songs of their new album – in my opinion their best so far – including the great “He Would Have Laughed” and “Don’t Cry”. The high point of the night was the beautiful and melancholic “Helicopter”, which lasted good six minutes.

Add to those tracks a hand picked selection of tracks of their previous albums like “Nothing Ever Happened” and you have a very solid set list.

With beautiful melodies, original sounds and even a dance beat every so often, Deerhunter once again threw a party. The show ended with about 40 people on stage, dancing like crazy to the front man Bradford Cox banging on the drums as an extension of their last song of the night “Strange Lights”, my favorite from their second album Cryptograms.

Now I shall leave you with the set list and a good amount of jealousy.

Set List
- “Desire Lines”
- “Hazel St.”
- “Never Stops”
- “Rainwater Cassette Exchange”
- “Don’t Cry”
- “Revival”
- “Nothing Ever Happened”
- “Fountain Stairs”
- “Helicopter”
- “He Would Have Laughed”

Encore
- “Lake Somerset”
- “Dr. Glass”
- “Strange Lights”