Deer Tick, Those Darlins & Luke Temple @ Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY - pics

November 12, 2008

Photos by Nathan Miller

DOWNLOAD: Deer Tick – Art Isn’t Real (City of Sin) (MP3)

“Deer Tick took the stage at Brooklyn’s Southpaw on Saturday for the release of the War Elephant reissue on Partisan Records. Texas based Feow! Records put out the first version of War Elephant last Fall. Unfortunately, the little label run by Jana hunter and Matt Brownlie closed up shop this past August.

Five minutes had not elapsed before bronze-voiced McCauley was shirtless. A detail that lent to a level of intimacy that one usually doesn’t get from a standing-room-only concert. It was best illustrated in the couple of songs he played with one of the ladies from Those Darlins (I have a crush on the curly haired one, by the way). They had written some ditties at 6am, just hanging out. McCauley’s stage presence exudes simply that: we’re all friends and we’re hangin’ out, singing together. The first half of the set consisted of newer, meloncholy songs. I was annoyed by some drunk members of the audience that wouldn’t STFU during a beautiful piece of just acoustic guitar, upright bass and harmonica (I don’t know why, but this girl brought an aloe vera plant to the show and wouldn’t stop talking about it). At the halfway point, McCauley started a sing-along hootenanny with “Ashamed” – to which my friends and I drove our fists into the air and exclaimed in chorus: “Oh oh oh ohhhhhh, a crying shame! A cryin’ shame, what we became!” Highlights included the foot-stomping “These Old Shoes” and a song dedicated to president-elect Obama. The night ended with a glorious cover of “La Bamba.”” [BLT / IDM]

More pictures below…