Deerhoof / Fertile Crescent / Experimental Dental School
40 Watt Club; Athens, GA

Walking into the 40 Watt on Halloween amid throngs of blood-plastered faces and ingeniously-engineered DIY costumes, I immediately recognized that, whether I liked it or not, I would be judging Deerhoof’s performance largely on their collective Halloween spirit and attention to costume. So when the band strolled out in mammoth, teetering carnivorous cat masks, excepting drummer Greg Saunier as the lone rodent in a mouse costume that was quickly drenched in sweat, the night’s success was effectively ensured.

Though to be fair, I should admit that I am the hugest of Deerhoof nerds, and given that this was to be my very first ‘Hoof show, I was sufficiently geeked-out. The band could do no wrong in my adoring eyes. This unadulterated enthusiasm extended even to their energetic opener “Basketball Get Your Groove Back” -- a song that I consider the weakest on the otherwise untouchable Offend Maggie. A large part of the band’s success this night in translating their recordings into powerful performances can be attributed to their new guitarist, Ed Rodriguez, whose zeal was shown with his enormous, continual grin, peeking out from under his ridiculously-oversized plush white tiger mask.

Only a few songs into the set, the excitement broke into fever pitch -- “Holy Night Fever” pitch I should say, heh heh, an obvious crowd favorite -- when Satomi broke out the silly string. Pretty wild Halloween show, right? By all accounts, Deerhoof is a pretty weird band, and given the artsy, almost abstruse experimental nature of their albums, it’s easy to forget how downright funky and straight-ahead rockin’ ol Deerhoof can be. Once again, the added guitar-power of Ed Rodriguez, not to mention the sheer insanity of Greg Saunier’s drum skills, brought out the rock, as the band stuck to songs that seemed best suited to live performance, like “Twin Killers,” “Wrong Time Capsule,” and “Spirit Ditties of No Tone” off The Runners Four.

“Milk Man” closed the show, and by this time, a sizable contingent of drunken, costumed assholes were trying their best to ruin the almost perfect show by creating an egregiously rowdy mosh pit directly to my left. Is it just me or is a Deerhoof show not the kind of place you expect to get elbowed in the face? However, John Dieterich, with a lion’s head slung behind his own like a fuzzy turtle shell hat, revived the night’s overwhelming sense of pure Deerhoof delight, when he stopped to take pictures of everyone’s costumes. Earlier, Greg had stopped the show to mention how excited he was by everyone’s costumes, and John’s aftershow photos only reinforced the feeling that Deerhoof's awesome performance is directly related to how much they care about what they do.

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